A STUDY OF 

GAWAIN AND THE GREEN 
KNIGHT 

BY 

GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 




CAMBRIDGE 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 

LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD 

Oxford University Press 

I916 



t^\ 






\ 






COPYRIGHT, 1916 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 



MAR 20 1916 



'CLA428350 



I 



TO 

JOHN MATTHEWS MANLY 

MY FRIEND FOR ALMOST 
THIRTY YEARS 



L. 



PREFACE 

Thirteen years ago this volume was announced, in a foot- 
note to Arthur and Gorlagon, as something that the writer 
hoped to publish in a few months. It was then practically 
finished, but procrastination has deferred its appearance 
beyond all accounting. However, the world has somehow 
got along without it, and meantime the manuscript has 
undergone revision from year to year, and has submitted to 
a final overhauling at the last moment, with the printer at 
the door. 

Such as it is, the book has two objects — to trace the 
history of a great romance, and to illustrate certain topics in 
folk-lore and mediaeval literature. Accordingly it is divided 
into two parts. The first eschews footnotes; the second 
accumulates them without scruple. Those friendly readers, 
therefore, who find such things distasteful may profitably 
leave the volume unopened, or close it at the hundred and 
forty-third page. 

The author does not play bridge, — and it is impossible 
to swim or to sail a boat in a New England winter. Let this 
suffice as an answer to anybody who thinks that he has 
wasted his time. At all events, it is his own time that he has 
spent — and suum cuique is a venerable precept. 

Acknowledgment is due to a number of friends and col- 
leagues for out-of-the-way facts or useful criticism. Several 
precious references to oracular heads come from the learn- 
ing of Professor George F. Moore, and in Celtic matters 
Professor Robinson has given invaluable help at every 
turn. 

Cambridge, February ii, 1916. 



L 



CONTENTS 

PART I 
GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

PAGE 

I. The English Romance 3 

II. The Challenge; or, The Beheading Game .... 9 

The Irish Versions 9 

Le Livre de Caradoc 26 

The French Romance of the Challenge (R) 38 

La Mule sanz Frain 42 

Perlesvaus 52 

Humbaut 61 

The Anglo-Norman Romance of the Challenge (O) . . 66 

Recapitulation 74 

III. The Temptation 76 

Ider 83 

The Carl of CarHsle 85 

Le Chevaher a I'fipee 89 

The Canzoni and the Exempla 93 

Humbaut 99 

The Principle of Manners (Rauf Coilyear) loi 

The Version used in the French Gawain and the Green 

Knight 104 

IV. The Combined Plot of Gawain and the Green 

Knight 107 

The Turk and Gawain 118 

The Green Knight in the Percy Manuscript .... 125 

Conclusion 137 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

PART II 
ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL 

I. The Returning or Surviving Head 147 

II. The Demon of Vegetation 195 

III. Disenchantment by Decapitation 200 

IV. Duelling by Alternation 218 

V. The Book of Caradoc 224 

VL La Mule sanz Frain 231 

VII. The Carl of Carlisle 257 

VIII. The Turk and Gawain 274 

IX. The Green Knight of the Percy Manuscript ... 282 

Bibliographical Note 290 

Index 307 



PART I 

GAWAIN AND THE GREEN 
KNIGHT 



GAWAIN AND THE GREEN 
KNIGHT 

I. THE ENGLISH ROMANCE 

The English romance of Gawain and the Green Knight is a 
very distinguished piece of work. The plot is one of the best 
that an age of good stories has transmitted to us, and the 
unknown author handles his material with a combination of 
power and delicacy rare in even the best periods of literature. 
His sense of fitness and proportion entitles him to high rank 
as an artistic writer. His descriptive ability is extraordinary; 
yet he does not allow description to clog the narrative. His 
ideal of hfe is noble, and his knowledge of human nature is at 
once minute and sympathetic. Finally, his command of a 
difficult metre, and the ease and felicity with which he 
handles an amazingly elaborate diction, bending its con- 
ventions to his will and never impeded or dominated by its 
inherited mannerisms, mark him as a master of expression. 
Some of the best of the Middle English romances are rough 
and artless compositions: they live by their freshness and 
naive energy, or by the bare fact that they embody a good 
tale, whose merits are independent of phraseology. But for 
Gawain and the Green Knight no allowances need be made. 
Both in plan and in execution, in gross and in detail, it 
would be a credit to any literature. The author was a poet 
and an artist as well as a lively raconteur. 

That the immediate source of Gawain and the Green 
Knight was a French poem is altogether probable. Nor can 



4 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

there be much question in what the obligations of the 
EngHsh writer consist. He is certainly indebted to his 
unknown predecessor for the plot as a whole. Yet the Eng- 
lish romance is by no means a mere translation. The French 
original is lost, but if it resembled those episodical romances 
of its class that have come down to us, it was simply a good 
story fluently told in a clear and engaging style. The quali- 
ties which distinguish Gawain and the Green Knight from 
other EngHsh romances distinguish it no less from that class 
of French romances to which its lost original presumably 
belonged. For example, if the French poem is ever re-~ 
covered, we shall doubtless find that it lacks the fine transi- 
tional passage on the changing seasons, by means of which 
the English poet spans the interval of a year between the two 
acts of his drama. In like manner, we shall look in vain 
for the elaborate account of the arming of Gawain, for 
the spirited details of the three hunting scenes, and for the 
" breaking of the deer "; nor will the conversations between 
Gawain and his hostess appear at such length as in the 
EngKsh, or show such deUcacy of characterization. In 
short, the French original was, in all probabiUty, a straight- 
forward narrative, written in a lively but not an elevated 
style, with no more description and reflection than are neces- 
sary to clearness, and with little poetical embellishment of 
any kind. Even in the plot, it is likely that the English poet 
has introduced some modifications, though these, we may 
safely assume, were not such as to affect the essential 
integrity of the story. 

The plot of Gawain and the Green Knight is familiar to all 
students of mediaeval literature and has been made gen- 
erally accessible in more than one translation; but a 
brief summary is necessary at this point to make clear the 
comparisons that are to follow. 



THE ENGLISH ROMANCE 5 

King Arthur is holding court at Camelot in the Christmas season. 
New Year's Day has come and the feast is ready. But Arthur himself 
will not touch food until all the company is served; for it is his custom 
never to eat on such a high day until he has heard some strange tidings 
or some adventure has happened.^ Everybody else is seated, but the 
king remains standing before the high table. Suddenly there enters 
the hall on horseback a huge knight, splendidly attired, and armed 
only with a battle-axe. His face, hair, and beard, his coat and 
mantle, his horse and its accoutrements, are all green, and in one hand 
he bears a holly bough, " that is greatest in green when groves are 
bare." Riding up to the dais, he challenges the court to contend with 
him in a Christmas game: — he will take a blow with the axe without 
resistance, provided that, a twelvemonth and a day hence, his oppo- 
nent will receive from him a stroke in return. Everybody hesitates, 
and the stranger taunts the knights with cowardice: " What, is this 
Arthur's house, that is so renowned in many realms ? Where is your 
pride now? Where are your conquests, your valor, and your great 
words ? Now are the splendor and the renown of the Round Table 
overcome by the words of one man's speech! " Arthur springs for- 
ward and grasps the axe; but Gawain interposes and begs the contest 
for himself. The king gives way, by the advice of his council. The 
Green Knight then subjoins the condition that Gawain, after deaHng 
the blow, shall visit him at his home to receive the return stroke: — 
"If I speak after the blow, and tell thee my name, and where I live, 
then art thou bound to visit me; otherwise thou art free of the 
covenant." Gawain then smites off the challenger's head with one 
sweep of the weapon. The Green Knight picks up the head and 
mounts his horse. The head, thus held up by the hair, calls upon 
Gawain to fulfil the compact by presenting himself at the Green 
Chapel on next New Year's morn, — the challenger, says the head, 
is called the Knight of the Green Chapel. Then the Green Knight, 
his head in his hand, rides out of the hall at full speed. 

When the year's term has nearly expired, Gawain sets out in quest 
of the Green Chapel. After long and toilsome wanderings, he comes, 
on Christmas night, to a fine castle, where he is hospitably entertained. 
The lord of the castle is a tall and stalwart knight, " of high age," 
with a broad beaver-hued beard and a " face fell as the fire." He 
receives Gawain with much courtesy, and, learning his name, expresses 
his satisfaction at the honor of a visit from so distinguished a per- 
sonage. The lady of the castle is of great beauty, fairer than Guine- 

^ See Child, Ballads, I, 257, note J; III, 51, note §; of. [Harvard] Studies 
and Notes in Philology and Literature, VIII, 210, note 4. 



6 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

vere herself. There is another lady in the household, old and very 
ugly, but held in high honor by all, and there are many guests. On the 
morrow of St. John's day, the guests take their departure. The lord 
of the castle urges Gawain to stay longer, but he declines, alleging his 
errand. When, however, the lord learns that Gawain is bound for the 
Green Chapel, he tells him that this is not two miles distant, and 
Gawain accordingly consents to remain until New Year's morn. 

For the last three days of Gawain's stay, his host proposes a merry 
bargain: Gawain, wearied by his hard journey, is to he abed till mass- 
time and spend the day indoors, in the lady's company, while the 
host goes a-hunting. In the evening they are to exchange what they 
have won during the day. Gawain accepts the proposition with no 
thought of guile. He will be ruled in all things, he says, by his friendly 
entertainer. 

On the morning of each of the three days that follow, Gawain is 
visited, before he rises, by the lady of the castle, who offers him her 
love. He withstands temptation, though he is in great peril. The 
first morning, the lady gives him a kiss; the second morning, two; 
and these he faithfully bestows on her husband at nightfall, when, 
in accordance with the compact, the avails of the hunt are turned 
over to him. On the third morning, the lady bestows on Gawain three 
kisses, and also a green lace which she avers will protect him from 
death in fight. That night he renders up the kisses to his host, but 
he says nothing about the lace. 

On the next morning, which is New Year's day, a retainer is detailed 
to conduct Gawain to the Green Chapel. Before they reach it, 
Gawain's guide warns him that the Chapel is guarded by a huge and 
merciless man, who kills everybody that passes: — " Therefore, good 
Sir Gawain, let the man alone. Go away in some other direction, and 
I swear to keep your secret." Gawain thanks his friendly guide, but 
insists on fulfilling his covenant. The servant then gives him further 
directions, and rides off, protesting that he would not visit the Green 
Chapel for all the gold in the world. 

Gawain rides down into a valley, but at first can see nothing of the 
Chapel. At last, by the side of a roaring stream, he perceives a mound 
overgrown with turf, and having a hole at the end and on either side. 
It seems to him " an old cave, or the crevice of an old crag." " Per- 
haps this is the Green Chapel," says Gawain to himself. " It is a 
place where the devil might well say his matins at midnight ! It is a 
chapel of mischance! It is the cursedest kirk that e'er I came in!" 
Then he hears, on the other side of the stream, a noise as of one grind- 
ing a scythe upon a grindstone. " Who is here," he calls out, " to 
keep appointment with me ? Gawain is now at hand, if anybody 



THE ENGLISH ROMANCE 7 

wishes to meet him. It is now or never! " " Abide! " answers a voice, 
and immediately a huge man comes out of a hole, axe in hand, vaults 
over the stream, and approaches Gawain. It is the Green Knight. 
" Thou art trusty in keeping thine appointments," is his greeting. 

Then Gawain bends his neck, and the axe is raised. As it descends, 
however, he ''shrinks a little with his shoulders," whereupon the 
Green Knight pauses, and upbraids him with cowardice. The second 
time the Green Knight makes a feint with the axe, and Gawain stands 
firm. " Now thy heart is whole," says the Green Knight, " and it 
behoves me to strike." Gawain grows angry at the delay. " Why, 
thresh on, thou fierce man!" he cries, *'thou threatest too long. I 
think thou art terrified at thine own self." The axe comes down a 
third time, but, instead of striking off Ga wain's head, it merely makes 
a little gash in his neck. Then Gawain springs away more than a 
spear's length, and puts on his helm. " No more! " he cries, " I have 
endured one stroke, as I agreed. If thou strikest another, I shall 
repay thee! " 

But the Green Knight has no wish to pursue the matter. He reveals 
himself as identical with Gawain's host of the castle. He knew all 
about the actions of his lady; — in fact, he says, it was at his instance 
that she had wooed Gawain, merely as a test of the visitor's fidelity. 
The first two blows had been harmless, he adds, because Gawain had 
faithfully rendered up all that he had received on the first two days, — 
the kisses that the lady had given him. The third blow had taken 
effect because Gawain had concealed the lace. In spite of this pec- 
cadillo, the Green Knight, who now discloses his name as Bernlak de 
Hautdesert, commends Gawain for the truest of knights, and invites 
him to go back with him to the castle. But Gawain is abashed and 
takes his leave. The Green Knight tells him that the " ancient lady " 
whom Gawain has seen at the castle is "Morgne la Faye," and that 
it was by her instructions that he had paid a visit to Arthur's court, 
Morgan's purpose was, he says, to drive all the knights mad with 
terror and cause the death of Guinevere from fright. Gawain and 
his host part with expressions of mutual esteem. Gawain returns 
to Arthur's court and gives a truthful account of his adventure, 
though he is sore ashamed. King Arthur and his household laugh, 
and agree that all the knights " that belong to the Table " shall 
henceforth wear a green lace or baldric like Gawain's. 

As the plot of Gawain and the Green Knight lies before us, 
it is immediately and obviously divisible into two distinct 
adventures: — (i) the exchange of blows with the axe, 



8 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

which for brevity's sake we may entitle " The Challenge," 
and (2) the experiences of Gawain at the castle of Bernlak, 
which we may conveniently designate as " The Tempta- 
tion." In the structure of the romance, the second of these 
adventures is inserted in the first, and the combination is 
very skilfully worked, so that the hero is made to emerge 
unharmed from the dangers of the Challenge because he has 
stood the test imposed by the Temptation. Nor is this all, 
— Gawain is tested without knowing it. His fortitude in 
withstanding the lady's blandishments is made to result 
purely and simply from his character. He rejects her ad- 
vances, not because he is aware of the vital necessity of 
rejecting them, — for he has no suspicion of the identity of 
the lady's husband, and no thought of any connection be- 
tween his own conduct at the castle and the upshot of the 
beheading game, — but because he would remain faithful 
to his knightly ideal of " truth," that is, in this instance, of 
fidelity to the general obligation of guest to host and to the 
special obligation involved in his compact as to each day's 
winnings. 

Structurally considered, then, the adventure of the Temp- 
tation becomes an incident of the adventure of the Chal- 
lenge; the Challenge brings about the Temptation, and the 
Temptation, in its turn, determines the issue of the Chal- 
lenge. Nevertheless, our division of the plot into these two 
adventures is neither arbitrary nor mechanical. It accords 
with known facts. Both the Challenge and the Temptation 
exist elsewhere in literature, and each is quite independent 
of the other in origin and history. Indeed, it is only in this 
particular romance of Gawain and the Green Knight that the 
two are woven together in a single plot.^ We must therefore 

1 The romance of Humbaut contains both the Challenge and a form of the 
Temptation, but the two episodes are not combined. 



fi 



THE IRISH VERSIONS 9 

study them separately, in the first instance, before we can 
understand the changes to which they have been sub- 
jected^in this special combination. The study is not unin- 
teresting for its own sake, and it may throw some light on 
the narrative techm'que of the middle ages. 

The Challenge has already been examined with more or 
less care by several scholars, but the importance of the 
Temptation seems not to have been sufficiently recognized. 

II. THE CHALLENGE; OR, THE BEHEADING 
GAME 

The Irish Versions 

Our study of the extraordinary tale known as The Behead- 
ing Game — or, as we have agreed to call it, for brevity. 
The Challenge — is much facihtated by a fortunate chance 
which enables us, in a manner, to begin at the beginning 
instead of working back to a purely hypothetical source. 
The Challenge is not only extant in several Old French 
documents; it is also preserved in Middle Irish in a highly 
developed literary form, essentially identical, even in de- 
tails, with the shape which it takes in Gawain and the Green 
Knight. We may be certain, therefore, that the incident is 
Celtic, and that it somehow passed from Irish literature 
into French. The details of this process are not altogether 
clear, but the main fact admits of no dispute, and affords a 
firm basis for our investigation. In calUng the Challenge 
story " Celtic," I do not mean to assert that the mere inci- 
dent, in its elements or its simplest form, actually originated 
on Celtic soil. Such a proposition would be equally gratui- 
tous and venturesome. What is certain is that, long before 
the earliest date which can be assigned to any conceivable 
French work embodying this incident in its developed form, 



lO GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

this developed form existed, in literary shape, in Ireland. In 
other words, the Challenge in the form in which it appears in 
Old French and Middle English Hterature, is unquestion- 
ably of Celtic origin. More than this the conditions of the 
investigation do not require one to postulate. 

The Irish story bears the separate and distinct title of 
The Champion's Bargain,^ and occurs as the concluding 
adventure in the great epic saga of Fled Bricrend, or Bricriu's 
Feast. The subject of this saga is the contention of the three 
most distinguished champions of Ulster for the ciirathmir or 
*' hero's portion " — a special ration or allowance assigned 
to the preeminent warrior at feasts. The manuscript that 
contains Bricriu's Feast, the famous Lebor na hUidre (or 
Book of the Dun Cow), was written at the end of the eleventh 
or the beginning of the twelfth century (the scribe of this 
portion of the Fled Bricrend was killed in i io6), and the saga 
itself is much older than the manuscript. The Champion's 
Bargain is incomplete in the Lehor na hUidre, on account of 
the mutilation of the manuscript, but enough of it is there 
preserved to warrant our accepting the complete text con- 
tained in a later manuscript as an accurate reproduction of 
the story in every particular.^ The adventure must be 
translated in full, for it is too important to be abridged. 

The Champion's Bargain 

Once upon a time, when the Ulstermen were in Emain Macha,^ 
after the fatigue of the gathering and games, Conchobar and Fergus 
mac Roig and likewise the nobles of Ulster came from the playing 
field outside and took their seats in the Red Branch * of Conchobar. 
Neither Cuchulinn nor Conall the Victorious nor Loegaire the Trium- 
phant was there that night; but all the rest of the host of vaUant 
warriors of Ulster were present. While they were there at the hour 
of evening at the close of day, they saw a carl, great and very hideous, 

^ Cemiach ind Rua^iada. ^ The Ulster capital. 

2 See p. 291. 4 Conchobar's royal residence or hall. 



THE IRISH VERSIONS 1 1 

coming toward them into the house. It seemed to them that there 
was not among the Ulstermen a hero who would reach half his size. 
Terrible and hideous was the appearance of the carl. An old hide next 
his skin, and a black tawny cloak about him, and upon him the bushi- 
ness of a great tree the size of a winter-fold in which thirty yearlings 
could find shelter.^ Fierce yellow eyes in his head, each of those two 
eyes standing out of his head as big as a cauldron that would hold a 
large ox. As thick as the wrist of any other man each one of his 
fingers. In his left hand, a block in which was a load for twenty yoke 
of oxen. In his right hand, an axe into which had gone thrice fifty 
measures of glowing metal; the handle was so heavy that it would 
take the strength of six oxen to move it; it would cut hairs against 
the wind for sharpness. 

In that guise he went and took his stand at the base of the forked 
beam which was by the fire. " Is the house too small for you," said 
Dubthach Chafer-tongue ^ to the carl, "that you find no other place 
there except at the base of the forked beam, — unless it pleases you 
to claim the position of Hght-bearer for the house ? Only you are 
more likely to burn the house down than to give light to the house- 
hold." 

"Whatever my art may be," [said the carl,] "surely it will be judged, 
however tall I may be, that the whole household shall have fight and 
yet the house shall not be burned. 

"Still," said he, "that is not my only art; I have other arts 
besides. However, the thing which I have come in quest of," said he, 
" I have found neither in Ireland nor in Scotland nor in Europe nor 
in Africa nor in Asia as far as Greece and Scythia and the Orkney 
Islands and the Pillars of Hercules and the Tower of Bregon and the 
Isles of Gades any man who would fulfil the rules of fair play ^ for 
me with regard to it. Since you Ulstermen have distinguished your- 
selves," said he, " above the hosts of all those lands for the terror 

1 This certainly refers to the carl's bushy head of hair, as Zimmer was the 
first to understand. 

^ So called from his habit of sharp speech. 

^ The Irish phrase isfirfer, " the truth of men." On this technical expres- 
sion (" das von Mannern gegebene Wort, das unter alien Umstanden ein- 
gelost . . . werden muss "), see Zimmer, Zeitschrift fur celtische Philologie, 
I, loi, apropos of the Fled Bricrend. He cites Revue CeUique, III, 184, and 
Windisch, Irische Texte, I, Worterbuch, p. 550. Compare the kingly habit 
of granting requests or making pledges without knowing what is involved, 
common in romances and folk-tales (Campbell, Popular Tales of the West 
Highlands, II, 138). 



12 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

[you inspire] and prowess and valor, for rank and pride and dignity, 
for justice and generosity and worth, find from among you one man 
who shall fulfil toward me the quest in which I am [engaged]." 

" Verily, it is not right," said Fergus mac Roich, " for the honor 
of the province to be taken away for the lack of a man to make good 
their honor, and surely death would not be nearer to that man than 
to you! " " I am not avoiding that, then! " said he. " Then let us 
know your quest," said Fergus mac Roich. " If only fair play be 
granted me," said he, '' I will tell it." " It is right also [for us] to 
fulfil [the rules of] fair play to you," said Sencha mac Ailill, " for it is 
not fair play for a great united host to attack one solitary stranger 
among them; and besides, we should have thought," said Sencha, 
" that even already you would have found one man to oppose you 
here." " I exempt Conchobar," said he, " because of his kingship, 
and I exempt Fergus mac Roig, because of his legal privilege; and 
whoever it is of you that is able," said he, " except these two, let him 
come, that I may ^ strike off his head to-night and he may strike off 
my head to-morrow night." 

" It is certain now," said Dubthach, " that there is no one here 
who is a worthy warrior [a match for you ?] . . . after those two." 
" Truly there shall be, this instant! " said Munremar mac Gerrcind. 
Thereupon he sprang out on the floor of the house. Now this was the 
strength of that Munremar: the strength of a hundred warriors in 
him, and the strength of a hundred . . . ^ in each of his two arms. 
" Stoop, carl, that I may strike off your head to-night and that you 
may strike off mine to-morrow night! " said Munremar. " I should 
have found that anywhere, if that were what I want," said the carl. 
" As we have agreed," said he, " so let us do — I to cut off your 
head to-night, you to cut off mine to-morrow night to avenge it." 
" I swear the oath of my people," said Dubthach Chafter-tongue 
[to Munremar], "death will not be more pleasing to you thus, if the 
man whom you shall kill to-night shall be ready to kill you to-morrow. 
It is given to you alone [i.e. it is your unique gift or privilege]," [said 
he to the carl,] "if you have the ability to be killed each night and to 
avenge it on the morrow." " Truly, I will carry out the plan which 
you all agree upon, though it seems wonderful to you," said the carl. 
Thereupon he exacted from the other a pledge . . . with regard to 
fufiUing his tryst on the morrow. 

^ Here ends the Lehor na hUidre text. Our sole authority for the rest is 
the Edinburgh Gaelic MS. XL, except for the remainder of the sentence, 
which is preserved in Egerton MS. 93 and in the Leyden MS. 

* Unintelligible word. 



THE IRISH VERSIONS 1 3 

Then Munremar took the axe from the carl's hand. Seven feet, 
now, between the two sides of the axe. Then the carl put his neck 
across the block. Munremar dealt a blow with the axe across his 
neck so that it remained fixed in the block so that he cut off the head 
so that it was at the foot of the forked beam so that the house was 
full of blood. Straightway he rose and picked [himself] up after that, 
and gathered his head and his block and his axe in his bosom, and 
thus went out of the house, and streams of blood from his neck so that 
it filled the Red Branch on every side, and great was their horror as 
they wondered at the marvel that had appeared to them. " I swear 
the oath of my people," said Dubthach Chafer-tongue, " if the carl 
comes to-morrow after having been killed to-night, he will not leave 
a man alive in Ulster." However, the carl returned on the morrow 
at night, and Munremar went away to avoid him. The carl began 
to urge [the fulfilment of] his pact upon him: " Truly, it is not right 
for Munremar to shirk the fulfilment of his bargain with me." 

However, Loegaire the Triumphant was there that night. " Which 
of the warriors that contest the champion's portion of Ulster," said he, 
" will fulfil a bargain with me to-night ? Where is Loegaire the 
Triumphant ? " said he. " Here! " said Loegaire. He took a pledge 
from him in like manner, and Loegaire did not come. He came again 
on the morrow, and took a pledge from Conall the Victorious in like 
manner, and he did not come as he had sworn. 

Again he came on the fourth night and anger and rage(?) was 
upon him then. All the women of Ulster had come that night to see 
the strange marvel that had come into the Red Branch. Cuchulinn 
also was there that night. Then the carl began to upbraid them: 
" Your valor and your prowess are gone, O Ulstermen," said he. 
" Great is the desire of your warriors for the champion's portion," 
said he, " but they are unable to contest it. Where is that mad 
wretched creature that is called Cuchuhnn," said he, " [that I may 
see] if his word is better than that of the rest of the host ? " "I have 
no wish to bargain with you at all," said Cuchuhnn. " Likely enough, 
miserable fly! Greatly do you fear death." Thereupon Cuchulinn 
leaped toward him. He dealt him a blow with the axe so that he 
sent his head to the top rafter of the Red Branch, so that the whole 
house shook. Cuchuhnn caught up his head again and gave it a blow 
with the axe so that he made fragments of it. He rose up after that. 

On the morrow the Ulstermen were watching Cuchuhnn to see 
whether he would avoid the carl, as the other heroes had done. The 
Ulstermen saw that while Cuchuhnn was awaiting the carl, very great 
dejection seized him, and it would have been fitting if they had sung 
a dirge over him, and they felt sure that his Hf e would last but till the 



14 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

carl should come. Then said Conchobar to Cuchulinn: "Avoid 
him! " " By my shield and by my sword, I will not go until I fulfil 
my pledge to the carl; for death is before me, and it is better for 
me to have death than dishonor." 

As they were there, then, at the close of day, they saw the carl 
approaching them. " Where is Cuchulinn ? " said he. " Here am I, 
then," said CuchuHnn. " You are humble of speech to-night, poor 
feUow; greatly you fear death. Though greatly you fear death, you 
have not avoided it." The Cuchulinn went to him and stretched his 
neck across the block. The size of the block was such that his neck 
reached but halfway. " Stretch out your neck, wretch! " said the 
carl. " You are torturing me! " said Cuchulinn, " kill me quickly; 
verily I did not torture you last night," said he. " Verily, I swear," 
said Cuchulinn, " if you torture me, I will make myself as long as a 
crane above you." " I cannot slay you," said the carl, '' what with 
the size of the block and the shortness of your neck and of your side." 

Then Cuchulinn stretched out his neck so that a grown man's foot 
would have fitted between each two of his ribs, and he stretched his 
neck until it reached the block on the other side. The carl raised his 
axe so that it reached the roof-tree of the house. The creaking of the 
old hide that was about the carl, and the creaking of the axe, and the 
force of his two arms raised aloft, were like the loud noise of a . . . 
forest in a stormy night. It descended again ... on his neck, and 
its blunt side downward. All the nobles of Ulster were looking at them 
meanwhile. 

" Rise, Cuchulinn! ... Of the warriors of Ulster or of Ireland, 
none is found to be compared with you in valor or in prowess or in 
truth. The sovereignty of the warriors of Ireland to you from this 
hour, and the champion's portion without dispute, and to your wife 
precedence of the women of Ulster forever in the house of drinking! 
and moreover," said he " whoever he may be who may contest it 
against you from this time forth, I swear by what my people swear 
that this shall be the length of his Hfe. ..." 

Then the carl [departed]. And it was Curoi mac Daire who had 
come in that guise to fulfil the promise that he had given to Cuchulinn. 
From that hour the champion's portion was not disputed against 
Cuchulinn, and thus ends the Champion's Portion of Emain, and 
the Word-Battle of the Women of Ulster, and the Bargain of the 
Champion in Emain Macha, and the Journey of the Ulstermen to 
Cruachan Ai.^ 

1 Fled Bricrend, edited by Henderson, 1899, chap. 16, §§ 91-102, pp. 116- 
129. The translation given above makes free use of the renderings by 
Henderson and Kuno Meyer (see p. 291, below). 



THE IRISH VERSIONS IJ 

No argument is needed to show that The Champion^s 
Bargain is the same story as the Challenge in Gawain and 
the Green Knight. In both the Irish saga and the English 
poem we have a huge uncanny stranger visiting the court of 
a great national king on a high feastday and challenging the 
assembled company to an exchange of blows with an axe. 
In both, the stranger declares that he has come to test the 
valor of the court on account of its high reputation for 
bravery and other noble qualities. In both, the consterna- 
tion of the warriors is dwelt on. In both, the stranger 
taunts the heroes when they hesitate, declaring that 
their fame is undeserved. In both, the king does not sub- 
ject himself to the test: in the Irish he is expressly exempted 
by the challenger; in the English he resigns the adventure 
to Gawain. In both, one knight only is found who dares 
fulfil the compact, and he is the most distinguished of all. 
In both, the stranger spares this knight, proclaiming him 
the best of heroes. The contrast between the rude savagery 
of the Irish saga and the refined chivahy of the English 
romance is notable; but it is a difference of manners only — 
precisely such a difference as we should expect in a romantic 
French or English adaptation of an ancient Irish epic tale. 

The close agreement between the stories cannot be for- 
tuitous. Nor can it be due to the common utilizing of 
a casual bit of vagrant tradition. The Irish tale is carefully 
wrought out in detail with conscious art, and its corre- 
spondence with the English poem extends to certain 
minutiae which are not folk-lore, but literary elaboration. 

Compare, for instance, the speech in which the challenger 
(in both the Irish and the English) celebrates the reputation 
of the court to which he has come. Says the Green Knight: 
— " Since the renown of the people is so exalted, and thy 
burgh and thy men are held the best, — stiffest under steel- 



1 6 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

gear on steeds to ride, the wightest and worthiest in the 
whole world, well-tried in all manner of games, — and since 
here, as I have heard tell, courtesy is shown, — that has 
brought me hither at this time. If thou art as bold as all 
men say, thou wilt grant me the game that I ask." So, in 
the Irish saga, the stranger declares: '' The thing which I 
have come in quest of, I have found, neither in Ireland nor in 
Scotland, nor in Europe nor in Africa nor in Asia, as far as 
Greece and Scythia and the Orkney Islands and the Pillars 
of Hercules and the Tower of Bregon and the Isles of Cades, 
any man who would fulfil the rules of fair play for me with 
regard to it. Since you Ulstermen have distinguished your- 
selves above the hosts of all those lands for the terror [you 
inspire] and prowess and valor, for rank and pride and 
dignity, for justice and generosity and worth, find from 
among you one man who shall fulfil toward me the quest in 
which I am [engaged]." In the Enghsh poem. King Arthur 
repHes: '' Sir courteous knight, if thou crave battle here, 
thou shalt not fail to fight." Compare the words of Sencha 
in the Irish: *' We should have thought that even already 
you would have found one man to oppose you here." 

Further, we should note the upbraiding words of the 
stranger when he has specified the character of his proposal 
and the knights hang back. "What!" cries the Creen 
Knight. '' Is this Arthur's house that is so highly renowned 
in so many realms ? Where are now your pride and your 
conquests, your fierceness and your boldness and your great 
words ? Now are the splendor and the renown of the Round 
Table overcome by a word of one man's speech; for all 
cower for dread, though no blow has been given ! " So in the 
Irish tale: — "Your valor and your prowess are gone, O 
Ulstermen! Great is the desire of your warriors for the 
champion's portion, but they are unable to contest it." 



THE IRISH VERSIONS 1 7 

Further details might be cited, but these are enough for 
the present. Others will come out in abundance as we pro- 
ceed.i 

In the complete absence, then, of any indication to the 
contrary, we are forced to infer that the Challenge in Gawain 
and the Green Knight goes back, in some way, to an elaborate 
literary version of The Champion's Bargain in Irish. This 
literary Irish version, though it may not have been identical 
in all particulars with the text preserved in the Book of the 
Dun Cow and the complementary manuscript, cannot have 
differed much from that text. 

However, the Fled Brier end contains another version of 
the Challenge,^ simpler in most respects than The Cham- 
pion's Bargain, and apparently closer to the original form 
of the story. Here the three warriors who are contending for 
the hero's portion — Cuchuhnn, Loegaire, and Conall — 
are sent for adjudgment to one Uath mac Imomain, that is, 
^' Terror, the son of Great Fear." A full translation 
follows: — 

Now this Uath mac Imomain was a man of great strength who used 
to form himself into whatever shape he pleased and perform tricks of 
magic and arts of wizardry. He was, indeed, the wizard after whom the 
Wizard's Pass is named, and he was called the Wizard from the extent 
of his forming himself into many shapes. 

Then they went to Uath's loch, and a guide from Budi went with 
them. Then they told Uath the thing on account of which they had 
come to visit him. Uath said to them that he would undertake to 
judge them on condition only that they would abide by his decision. 
" We will abide by it," said they. He exacted a pledge from them. 
" I have a bargain [to propose]," said he, " and whichever it be of 
you who fulfils it with me, he it is who shall receive the champion's 
portion." "What kind of bargain is that?" said they. "I have an 

^ The analytical table of versions on pp. 66 £f. may be consulted if parti- 
culars are desired. 

^ The whole of this version is preserved in the Lebor na hUidre (see 
p. 292, below). 



1 8 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

axe," said he, "and it shall be given into the hand of one of you, and 
he is to cut off my head to-day, and I am to cut off his to-morrow." 

Then ConaU and Loegaire said they would not make that covenant, 
for it would not be in their power to live after they had been beheaded, 
although perhaps it would be in his power. So Conall and Loegaire 
refused him the bargain; although other books say that they made 
that bargain with him, — namely, Loegaire to cut off his head the 
first day, — and that he [Loegaire] avoided him [i.e. did not appear 
to receive Uath's blow in return], and that Conall avoided him in the 
same way. Then Cuchulinn said that he would make the bargain 
with him if the champion's portion were given to him. Then Conall 
and Loegaire said that they would rehnquish the champion's portion 
to him if he would make the bargain with Uath. Cuchulinn exacted 
a pledge from them that they would not contest the champion's 
portion if he should make the bargain with Uath. They also exacted 
a pledge from him that he would make the bargain. Uath laid his 
head on the stone for Cuchulinn,^ and Cuchulinn struck him a blow 
with his [Uath's] own axe, so that he smote off his head from him. 
Then he [Uath] went off from them into the loch, with his axe and 
his head in his bosom. 

On the morrow, then, he came to seek him, and Cuchulinn stretched 
himself out for him on the stone. He let the axe come down three 
times on his neck, back first. "Rise, Cuchulinn!" said Uath. 
" The sovereignty of the warriors of Ulster to you, and the champion's 
portion without dispute! " The three champions then went to Emain, 
and the others [i.e. Loegaire and Conall] did not acknowledge the 
judgment that had been rendered him. The former dispute about the 
champion's portion continued. Then the advice of the Ulstermen to 
them was to visit Curoi for their judgment. Then they agreed to 
that.2 

The presence of these two versions of a single adventure 
in the same Irish saga is due to the composite character of 
the extant text of the Bricriu's Feast. Old as it is, this text 
is well known to be a combination of two still older recen- 
sions, each of which contained a version of the Challenge. 
The combined text of the Fled Bricrend includes both ver- 

^ In the margin of the manuscript is added: " that is, after putting a 
spell on the edge of the axe." 

2 Fled Bricrend, edited by Henderson, chap. 14, §§ 75-78, pp. 96-101. 
The translation is based upon Henderson's rendering (see p. 292 below). 



THE IRISH VERSIONS 1 9 

sions, — one (Uath) standing in the body of the saga, the 
other (called The Champion's Bargain) at the very end. The 
editorial activity of the combiner is easy to follow on a mere 
inspection of the extant text. The Uath sections are in a 
hand different from that of the scribe of The Champion's 
Bargain and somewhat later, but still of the early twelfth 
century. 1 

Of the two ancient Irish versions of the Challenge that are 
before us, the Uath version is the simpler and shows much 
less literary elaboration. The presumption is strong that it 
offers a more primitive form of the episode. 

Two points of difference immediately appear, (i) In the 
Uath version, the three heroes visit Uath and request him to 
test their valor; in The Champion's Bargain, the uncanny 
creature visits the king's court, and the beheading game 
takes place in the presence of the assembled nobility of 
Ulster. (2) In the Uath version the game, as proposed by 
the giant, is to begin with his own decapitation: " ' I have an 
axe,' said he, * and it shall be given into the hand of one of 
you, and he is to cut off my head to-night and I am to cut 
off his head to-morrow.' " In The Champion's Bargain, on 
the other hand, the challenger begins with the opposite pro- 
position (" I will cut off his head to-night; he mine to- 
morrow "), but he reverses the order when this arrangement 
has failed to elicit a favorable response. This is an obvious, 
and rather clever, method of complicating the plot and 
heightening the suspense. 

Though both Irish versions of the Challenge are asso- 
ciated with Cuchulinn, and, in their present context, pre- 
suppose the fully developed Ulster cycle of epic tales, yet 
there is no reason to infer that the story was originally told 
of that hero. On the contrary, it seems probable a priori 

1 See p. 292. 



20 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

that it was in the first place a mere bit of floating folk-lore, 
ready to be attached to any famous warrior. However this 
may be, its association with the Cuchulinn saga must have 
taken place a long time before the two versions of the Fled 
Bricrend were amalgamated to make the text preserved in 
the Lehor na hUidre, — a text, we remember, that occurs in 
a manuscript of about iioo. Thus the Challenge, as a dis- 
tinct Irish story, is carried back to a date at least as 
early as the tenth century. 

The axeman belongs to a large class of supernatural beings 
whose heads return to their bodies after decapitation. Such 
creatures occur in popular tradition in almost every part 
of the earth — in Ireland, Scotland, the Faeroes, Brittany, 
Holland, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Italy, Russia, India, 
the Philippines, Papua, and among many tribes of the 
American aborigines from the North Pacific coast to Sal- 
vador.^ In origin they are doubtless serpent-monsters, or 
elemental water-demons with serpentine characteristics, and 
their peculiar ability to unite head with trunk may well 
come, in part, from that naive scientific observation of the 
folk which is responsible for the widespread behef , well docu- 
mented in the Scottish Highlands ^ and still common among 
American boys, that a snake's head will join its body again 
after being cut off. Ireland believed in such monsters in 
common with the rest of the world, though their serpentine 
origin had long been forgotten there, for obvious reasons, not 
unconnected with St. Patrick. The association of snake- 
men, ndgas, dragons, and other ophidian beings with lakes 
or tarns and, in general, with the element of water, is one 
of the most familiar of all traits of popular mythology. It 
can justly claim a scope as wide as the human race and an 
antiquity as venerable as the dawn of human thought. The 

^ See pp. 147 £f. 2 See p^ jg2. 



THE IRISH VERSIONS 21 

residence of Uath in a loch is manifestly a very archaic 
survival. 

With these facts in mind, one can readily infer the most 
primitive form of the Irish tale of the Challenge: — 

An elemental demon — a water-monster who inhabits a loch and 
is capable of human likeness — is in the habit of proposing to all 
comers an exchange of blows with an axe, granting them the privilege 
of the first stroke. To decline the challenge is death. To accept it is 
likewise death, for the monster's head returns to his shoulders and he 
instantly decapitates his mortal opponent. 

The practice of exchanging buffets in regular succession, 
or of deahng alternate blows with a weapon, is an ancient 
and widespread method of duelling. Saxo Grammaticus 
comments on it in his account of the death of Agnerus 
(Agnarr) at the hands of Biarco (Bjarki). In their duel 
with swords there was a long dispute which had the right to 
strike first; it was settled in favor of Agnerus because of his 
higher rank. He cut through Biarco's helmet and inflicted a 
scalp-wound. Biarco, bracing his foot against a log of 
wood, cut Agnerus in two with a single stroke. Saxo re- 
marks that '' in ancient times " this regular succession of 
blows was the estabHshed custom in single combats. Other 
sources inform us that it was practised in the Scandinavian 
holmgang, the challenged party having the first stroke, as in 
modern duels he has the choice of weapons. In the Helden- 
buch, Wolfdietrich and the heathen engage in a game of 
knife- throwing on the principle of alternation, the host 
(though challenger) claiming the first three throws by virtue 
of the custom of his castle. Wrennok and Gandeleyn, in a 
very old EngHsh ballad, shoot at each other in turn. In a 
folk-tale from Madagascar there is a duel in which first one 
person, then the other, throws a dart. Such cases occur also 
in PhiHppine legend. Blows with the hand are given in like 



) { f 

22 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

succession in the game of pluck-buffet in the romance of 
Richard Coer de Lion, in the Gest of Robin Hood, and in The 
Turk and Gawain. In Chapman's Alphonsus Emperor of 
Germany, two Dutch boors, Hans and Jerick, fight with 
axes. The stage direction reads: " They must have axes 
made for the nonst to fight withall, and while one strikes, the 
other holds his back without defence." ^ 

In view of the antiquity and the wide currency of this 
method of duelling by alternate shots or blows, it would be 
an easy step for popular superstition to ascribe to a super- 
natural creature the custom of challenging mortals to such a 
combat. But we need not depend upon inferences. In 
1827, Mr. P. Cunningham, writing of the blackfellows of 
New South Wales, remarked: '* Their common practice of 
fighting among themselves is still with the waddie,^ each 
alternately stooping the head to receive the other's blows, 
until one tumbles down, it being considered cowardly to 
evade a stroke." ^ And in 1846, Principal Braim, of Sydney 
College, in his history of the same colony, recorded the fol- 
lowing superstition of the same aborigines with regard to an 
" imaginary being named Ko-yo-ro-wen ": " His trill in the 
bush frequently alarms the blacks by night. When he over- 
takes a native, he commands him to exchange cudgels, 
giving his own, which is extremely large, and desiring the 
black to take a first blow at his head, which he holds down 
for that purpose, after which he smiles and kills the person 
with one blow, skewers him with the cudgel, carries him off, 
roasts, and then eats him." ^ 

The most skeptical critic of folk-lore would never think of 
suspecting that this article of the Austrahan creed was in- 

1 See pp. 218 ff. for further details. 

2 A wooden club (see E. C. Morris, Austral English, pp. 491-492). 
^ Two Years in New South Wales, London, 1827, II, 22. 

* T. H. Braym, History of New South Wales, London, 1846, II, 250. 



THE IRISH VERSIONS 23 

fluenced by European tradition. The coincidence is purely 
fortuitous, or rather it results from the tendency of savage 
men to think in identical terms. It is therefore a precious 
bit of testimony to the primitive character of the Challenge 
story in its main features. Taken in connection with the 
worldwide behef in a class of supernatural monsters whose 
severed heads return to their bodies, the Australian testi- 
mony raises our inferential reconstruction of the earliest 
Irish form of the tale to the rank of an established fact. 

In this earliest form, however, the Challenge is hardly a 
story at all. It is a mere behef, the result of misinterpreted 
observation and misunderstood experiences — a current 
superstition, attachable at will to any lonely tarn and not 
yet associated with the exploits of a particular hero. It 
becomes a tale when some hero, arriving at the loch by 
chance, or visiting it on purpose to try conclusions with the 
demon, emerges triumphantly from the encounter. This 
result he would achieve, of course, by outwitting the lake- 
man, either by destroying the head after he has severed it, 
or by keeping it away from the trunk until the creature is 
cold and dead. Examples of such methods abound in the 
folk-lore of Ireland and elsewhere. ^ At this stage of develop- 
ment, the story, after the manner of folk-tales, might well 
include three questers, only the last of whom succeeds. 
The adventure was now in a condition to be ascribed to 
ahnost any one — whether the anonymous or trivially 
named hero of a marchen, or some august personage of 
heroic saga who attracted folk-tales as a magnet attracts 
iron-filings; but there is no reason to suppose that it had 
yet joined the cycle of Cuchulinn. 

A further development removes the challenger from the 
category of purely malevolent beings and also ennobles the 
^ See pp. 148 flf. 



24 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

hero's character. An interval is allowed between the origi- 
nal decapitation and the return-blow. This gives the hero a 
chance to escape if he is willing to show the white feather. 
Three adventurers (the traditional number in folk-tales) 
accept the challenge, but only the third returns to what he 
supposes will be certain death. Him the challenger spares, 
striking him with the back of the axe, because of his valor 
and his fidelity to his plighted word. In this state the story 
coincides to all intents and purposes with the Uath chapter 
of the Fled Bricrend. Probably, indeed, it was actually the 
first author of this saga, or the first person that ever worked 
it up in connected form, who thus modified the folk-tale in 
the very process of attaching it to Cuchulinn as the con- 
clusive test of his supremacy among the warriors of Ulster. 
As we have seen, there were, as early as the eleventh cen- 
tury, two main versions of the complete Irish saga of the 
Contention for the Hero's Portion, which were combined in a 
text now actually extant in a manuscript written about i loo. 
In one of these the Challenge was retained in the form in 
which it now appears in the Uath chapter of the Fled Bric- 
rend. The other embodied the Challenge in a much more 
elaborate form, represented by The Champion^ s Bargain. 
Comparison shows at a glance that the Challenge in Gawain 
and the Green Knight is much closer to The Champion's 
Bargain than to the Uath episode. Yet the Uath version 
and Gawain and the Green Knight appear to agree in the 
incident of the three harmless blows, which seems at first 
sight not to be preserved in The Champion^s Bargain. 
Further scrutiny, however, shows clearly enough that The 
Champion^s Bargain does in effect afford this incident. 
Cuchuhnn lays his head upon the block, but the challenger 
refuses to strike him until he has stretched his neck to fit it. 
Cuchulinn makes the effort apparently, and calls for the 



THE IRISH VERSIONS 25 

blow. A second time the challenger declines to strike be- 
cause of the shortness of the hero's neck. Then Cuchulinn 
exercises his superhuman power of distortion and lengthens 
his neck to the necessary degree. Thereupon follows a blow 
with the back of the axe. Thus there are two refusals to 
smite in The Champion^ s Bargain, and one final blow. At a 
later stage of our study we shall take up the relation of the 
incident in this form to the three blows in the English 
romance.^ For the moment it must suffice to remark that 
we shall find no reason to appeal to the Uath version to 
explain the three harmless blows in the Gawain. 

The Irish tale of The Champion^ s Bargain, in a highly 
developed literary form, practically identical with that 
which concludes the Fled Bricrend, must have passed into 
French at an early date, for it was utilized by four romancers 
who wrote in that language, and none of them derived it 
from any of the others. The four romancers in question 
were the author of the lost French Gawain and the Green 
Knight, the author of the Livre de Caradoc, the author of La 
Mule sanz Frain, and the author of the Perlesvaus. Each of 
these documents embodies the story in a different combina- 
tion. In the lost Gawain it was united with the Temptation, 
as we have seen; in the Caradoc, it was worked into a tale 
belonging to the cycle of The Faithless Mother; in the Per- 
lesvaus it was made into an episode of the knight errantry of 
Lancelot; in La Mule, it was utilized in a tale that comes 
under the well-known type of a hero who is summoned by a 
messenger to the disenchantment of a waste city and the 
release of a princess. In none of these four romances, as I 
have said, does the author take the tale of the Challenge 
from any one of the other three. This is shown, in the case 
of Gawain and the Green Knight, the Livre de Caradoc, and La 
1 Pp. 40-41, 47-48, 72 £f. 



26 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Mule sanz Frain, by the fact that each of these three poems 
preserves features of the Irish story which the other two 
have lost. In the case of the Perlesvaus, which departs 
more widely from the original than the rest, the evidence for 
independent derivation is equally cogent, though rather too 
compHcated to be summed up in a sentence. A fifth French 
romance, Gauvain et Humbaut, contains the incident in a 
very imperfect shape, so disordered as to make its immediate 
source a matter of conjecture. 

Le Livre de Caradoc 

Of the extant French versions of the Challenge that in the 
Livre de Caradoc is closest to Gawain and the Green Knight. 
The Livre de Caradoc is inserted in the first continuation of 
Chretien's Perceval,'^ but it has no pertinency there, is 
clearly intrusive, and beyond question formed at one time 
an independent poem. The facts are universally admitted 
and require no further discussion.^ We may without 
apology speak henceforth of the Livre de Caradoc as a work 
by itself, disregarding its position in the Perceval. 

In the Livre, the Challenge is, of course, brought into 
more or less intimate relations with other events in Cara- 
doc's career. But it is easy to take it out of its frame, to 
isolate it, and to examine it as an independent unit. This 
procedure is justified prima facie on two grounds: first, the 
Challenge is originally an Irish tale quite independent of 
Caradoc and his legend ; and second, it is only in the Livre de 
Caradoc that the Challenge is associated with the other 
adventures therein contained, or with any of them.^ But 
this is not all. The saga of Caradoc, as told in the Livre, 
belongs in its main outlines to a well-known type of mdrchen 
— that of the Faithless Mother (or Sister) whose love for a 

^ Perceval li Gallois, vv. 12,451-15,792 (Potvin, III, 117-221). 
2 Seep. 297. ^ See pp. 2245. 



LE LIVRE DE CARADOC 27 

monster leads her to attempt her son's (or brother's) de- 
struction, and in which the hero is saved by his dogs or his 
amie.^ The type is here modified by prefixing an account of 
the hero's parentage which makes him the son of the un- 
canny lover — a motif best known in the Nectanabus portion 
of the Alexander romance. To the whole is appended the 
story of the Horn, which is applied to Caradoc's wife as a 
glorification of her virtue. How far this complex represents 
the saga of Caradoc (presumably Celtic) from which the 
French author of the Livre mediately or immediately drew, 
need not be determined. For one thing is abundantly mani- 
fest: the episode of the Challenge to the Beheading Game 
does not properly belong in the tale of The Faithless Mother 
and, indeed, it occurs in no other of the versions (about a 
hundred) in which that mdrchen is extant. Finally, the 
Challenge is so unskilfully worked into the main plot of the 
Livre as to involve the romancer in a plain absurdity .^ 

We may therefore continue our study of the Challenge in 
Old French literature, without pausing to discuss the peculiar 
company into which the Caradoc poet has brought that story 
by thrusting it into a plot with which it has nothing to do. 

The Challenge in the Livre de Caradoc runs as follows:^ — 

King Arthur holds his Pentecostal feast at Carduel, summoning his 
vassals from far and wide. The night before he has dubbed his grand- 
nephew Caradoc knight. When the feast is ready, Kay announces it, 
but the king refuses to begin until some strange news arrives or some 
adventure happens, alleging a custom. While they are speaking, there 
rides in at the hall door a very tall knight on a tawny steed; he is 
dressed in a long ermine robe which reaches to the ground and 

En son cief ot un capelet, 
A un ciercle d'or de bounet. 

He is armed with a very long sword. Riding up to the high dais, he 
greets King Arthur courteously and asks " a gift." " Tell us what the 

1 See pp. 228 ff. 3 vv. 12, 592-885 (Potvin, III, 125-133). 

2 See pp. 225 ff. 



28 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

gift is," Arthur replies, " and you shall have it." Then the stranger 
becomes more precise : " The boon is — to receive a blow on condition 
that I may give another." 

" Rois," fet-il, " ne vos voil defoivre, 
Le don est colee regoivre 
Por un autre colee prendre." ^ 

The king still asking for particulars, the knight explains himself 
fully: — "If there is a knight here who can cut off my head with one 
blow of this sword, and if I can recover from the blow, he may be 
sure of having the blow returned a year from now if he dare await it." 

" Rois, je vos di tout a estrous 
Que, s'il a gaiens chevalier 
Qui la tieste me puist trencier 
A un seul cop de ceste espee, 
Et se repuis de la colee 
Apries saner et regarir, 
Seurs puet estre, sans falir, 
D'ui en .i. an d'ausi reprendre 
La colee, s'il I'ose atendre." 

Then he dismounts, draws his sword, and holds it out; but the knights 
say that only a fool would risk such an adventure.^ Then the stranger 
taunts them: " What is the matter, sirs ? Will none of you accept ? 
Now may King Arthur see that his court is not so mighty as everybody 
declares. I shall have a poor report to make of it." 

" Ha," fait li chevaliers, " signer, 
Et cou que est ? n'en feres plus ? 
Or puet veoir li rois Artus 
Que sa cours n'est mie si rice 
Comme cascuns dist et afice; 
N'i a nul chevalier hardi; 
Por voir le vos tesmogne ci 
Que jou dirai teles novieles 
Qui n'ierent ne plaisant ne beles." 

He is departing in this mood when Caradoc springs forward and 
grasps the sword. The king tries to dissuade him: " Fair nephew, 
you can refrain without disgrace, for here is many a knight who could 

^ Montpellier MS. In the Mons MS. we have: 
Col6e demanc, sans degoivre, 
Por un autre errant a recoivre. 

2 Kay makes this remark in the Montpellier MS. 



LE LIVRE DE CARADOC 29 

strike better than you if he wished." Caradoc is resolved and raises 
the sword. The stranger faces the dais, lowers his head, and extends 
his neck. Caradoc decapitates him with a single blow and the head 
falls on the dais. But the stranger picks it up by the hair with both 
hands, puts it on his shoulders again, and stands up safe and sound. 

Caradeus fiert si durement 
Que la tieste volar en fist 
Desor le dois; cil le reprist 
Par les keviaus a ses .11. mains, 
Ausi com s'il fust trestous sains; 
Si le ragointe en es le pas.^ 

" Caradoc," says the stranger, " you have struck me." " Truly," 
remarks Kay ,2 " you seem indifferent to the injury! A year hence I 
would not be in Caradoc's place for all the gold in this land." The 
stranger then departs, promising to return in a year and charging 
Caradoc not to fail him. The king and the knights are sorrowful; 
the court breaks up, to reassemble next Pentecost. Caradoc borrows 
no trouble but remains in good spirits, passing the year in seeking 
adventures and " les chevaleries dures." 

The year is up and a very great court assembles to see Caradoc 
lose his head. All the knights make heavy cheer. The strange knight 
enters, as before, and rides up to the dais. He dismounts and draws 
his sword. " Caradoc," he cries, " I do not see you. Come forward 
and offer me your head, for I offered you mine! " ^ " Here am I," 

^ Mens MS. The Montpellier MS. indicates that the head was replaced 
with a rapidity almost too great for the eye to follow: — 

Si li a donne tel colee 

Que jusques el dois est coulee; 

Li chies li vole non pas pres 

Et li cors li suit de si pres 

Qu' ains que nus garde s'en soit prise 

R'a li cors sa teste reprise, 

Rasise I'a en son droit lieu. 

Li chevaliers saut anmi leu, 

Devant le roi, et saus et sains. 

2 Potvin reads " fait Caradeus," but the words are obviously meant to 
be uttered by Kay. 

3 So in the Montpellier MS.: — 

" Carados, je ne te voi mie! 
Vien avant, si auras tel feste, 
Met me ci en present ta teste, 
Car ge i mis autant la moie." 

The Mons. MS. has simply: " * Caraduel,' fait il, ' u es-tu ? ' " 



30 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

replies Caradoc, and prepares for the blow. King Arthur interrupts 
with an offer of ransom, but the stranger rejects it. Caradoc grows 
impatient at the delay: " Why will you not strike ? " he exclaims. 
" You will make me die two deaths by aiming without striking. I 
think you are a great coward! " 

Carados li a dit par ire: 
" Porquoi ne ferez-vos, beau sire ? 
De .II. mors me ferez morir 
Qui tant aesmes sans ferir. 
Moult vos en tieng ore a couart." ^ 

Then he stretches out his neck and the knight raises the sword. At 
this moment the queen comes out of her chamber with her ladies and 
begs him to hold his hand. She tries to bribe him by offering him, 
as his amie, any lady or maiden that he may choose, or all of them if 
he wishes. He decHnes with courteous firmness, bidding her return 
to her chamber and pray for Caradoc's soul. He then raises the sword 
again but merely strikes Caradoc softly, flatlong. " Rise up, Cara- 
doc," he says, " I do not wish to strike you any more, for you are a 
vahant and faithful knight." 

" Caradoc, fait-il, lieve sus! 
Ne te voel ore ferir plus, 
Car moult es vallans chevaliers, 
Et hardis et seurs et fiers." 

He then asks Caradoc to step aside with him, out of the king's hearing. 
Caradoc does so, and the knight tells him a secret: — '' You are my 
son." " You lie," replies Caradoc, but the knight (who turns out to 
be the enchanter EHavres) explains the facts in such a way that he is 
convinced, though he still professes disbelief.^ The stranger then 
departs. The adventure is finished, and all sit down to dinner. 

Since we have no critical edition of the Caradoc, nor even 
a satisfactory report of the differences (which are consider- 

^ So in the Montpellier MS., but with maus by error for mors (it is mors 
in the 1530 text). The Mons MS. has simply: 

" Chevalier, moult par es couars," 
Fait Caraduel. * Fai erramment 
Cou que tu dois." 

2 The details are excessively curious, but they are not to our present 
purpose, since they have nothing to do with the story of the Challenge (see 
p. 225). 



LE LIVRE DE CARADOC 3 1 

able) among the different manuscripts, we cannot be quite 
certain of what the author wrote. Madden's summary 
from the prose Perceval ^ differs from Potvin's verse text in 
two important particulars. According to Madden, while 
Arthur is awaiting an adventure at the Pentecostal feast, 
'' a knight hastily rides up, singing an air ' hien doulcementy' 
whose appearance is thus described : — ' et avoit dessus le 
bonnet ung cercle, ou pendoit img chapeau de fleurs, et estoit 
vestu de satin verd, fourre de erminnes; et avoit une espee 
saincte, dont puis eust la teste couppee, et en estoient ses 
renges ou saincture de fine soie, batue en or, et force perles 
semees par dessus' The knight comes to the king, and begs 
to have a request granted, — to exchange blow for blow. 
' How is that ? ' said Arthur. ' Sire, I will tell you,' re- 
pHed the stranger, ' I will deliver my sword to a knight, 
before your majesty and all the assembly, and if he is able to 
cut off my head with it at a blow, in case I should after- 
wards recover, I will then return him the stroke.' " To 
receive the stroke the challenger *' lays down his head on a 
block." And later, when the challenger returns after the 
lapse of a year, we hear of the block again: " Carados lays 
his head on the block, and tells the knight to do his worst. 
Arthur and his queen both make an effort to save Carados 
from what appears certain death, but in vain; and the 
stranger having sufficiently kept them all in suspense, raises 
his sword, and strikes the neck of Carados, but with the flat 
side only of the weapon. He then tells him to rise, and 
reveals to him that he is EHaures, the enchanter, his real 
father, and how it was brought about. He afterwards 
mounts his horse and departs, leaving Arthur and his 
knights to celebrate their feast in gladness." 

^ Edition of 1530, folios 76 v'^-yg v° {Syr Gawayne, pp. 305-306). Cf. 
Southey's summary from the same edition (King Arthur, 181 7, I, xxxvi). 



32 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

The old printed editions are not at present accessible to 
me, but Madden's report of their contents may be accepted 
without hesitation. In three particulars this report em- 
bodies traits which agree with some other version of the 
Challenge but differ from Potvin's text of the Livre de 
Caradoc: (i) the challenger wears green satin; (2) he wears 
a garland of flowers; (3) he lays his head down on a block, 
and the block is used for the return-blow likewise. Note, 
however, that the challenger does not bring the block with 
him, as he does in the Irish: it appears to be lying in the 
hall. I accept these three details as properly belonging to 
the Livre de Caradoc and use them accordingly. 

A comparison of the Challenge in the Livre de Caradoc and 
Gawain and the Green Knight with the Irish story of The 
Champion's Bargain, shows instantly that neither the Eng- 
hsh poem nor its French source derived the incident from 
the Livre de Caradoc. For the Gawain retains several old 
features that the Caradoc has lost. 

1 . The description of the strange visitant in Gawain and 
the Green Knight resembles that in The Champion's Bargain 
much more closely than the French description does. In the 
Irish he is a huge and terrible giant; in the English he is 
tentatively called a " half-etin," and is the greatest of all 
men upon mould in his stature; in both, much emphasis is 
laid on his extraordinary guise. In Caradoc, on the con- 
trary, no trace of his gigantic and savage appearance is pre- 
served except the tame epithet '' moult grant." ^ He is 
merely a tall knight, splendidly attired; there is nothing 
uncanny about his looks. 

2. In both the Irish and the English, the stranger's eyes 
are particularly mentioned. In the Irish we have: — 
" Fierce yellow eyes in his head; each of those two eyes 

1 V. 12642. 



I 



LE LIVRE DE CARADOC 33 

standing out of his head as big as a cauldron that would 
hold a large ox." In the English: '' Fiercely his red eyes 
he rolled about; bent his rough brows, gleaming green." ^ 
The Livre de Caradoc has nothing to correspond with these 
passages. 

3. In the French, the stranger greets Arthur " very 
courteously." ^ In the Irish, he stands silent until he is 
addressed by Dubthach. In the English, it is expressly 
stated that he greets nobody in the hall: ^ he rode straight 
up to the dais and called for " the governor of this troop." 

4. The stranger's weapon is a monstrous axe in the Irish 
and the English, and its size and keenness are emphasized 
in both; in the French, the weapon is merely a '' very long 
sword," ^ such as befits a tall knight. 

5. In the Irish and the English there is an elaborate and 
striking passage in which the stranger, before telling what 
his wish is, celebrates the reputation of the king's court. 
The passages have aheady been quoted.*^ There is none of 
this in Caradoc. Immediately after Arthur has returned his 
greeting, the stranger says, in a single line: '' ' Rois,' fait 
il, ' .1. don vos demanc ' " ; the king rephes, '' You shall have 
it, whatever it may be " ; the knight then issues his challenge. 

6. In the Irish, the king is especially exempted by the 
stranger from the operation of the challenge; in the EngHsh, 
Arthur accepts the challenge himself, but transfers it to 
Gawain, at Gawain's request. In Caradoc there is no sug- 
gestion that the king could possibly become personally 
involved in the affair. 

7. In the English and the Irish, the stranger goes out of 
the hall carrying his head with him. In the Caradoc, he 

^ Vv. 304-305. * V. 12647. 

2 "Mout gentement" (v. 12651). ^ Pp. 15-16, above. 

^ V. 223. ^ V. 12655. 



34 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

replaces his head as soon as it is cut off, and wears it on his 
shoulders when he makes his exit. 

Several of these divergences are evidently due to poHsh- 
ing. The manner in which the Livre de Caradoc has toned 
down the rudeness of the original description is highly 
instructive with reference to current discussions on the 
Matter of Britaih. The Livre is as courtly as possible, in 
word and deed. The uncanny appearance of the strange 
visitant has vanished by subUmation, and the huge gisarm 
gives place to a sword. Gawain and the Green Knight stands 
midway between the Irish and the French in this regard. It 
does not so much soften the appearance of the stranger. He 
looks Uke a ^' half-etin," but, as we are at once assured, he is 
really a man and no giant. His language and manners are 
less conventionally courteous than in the French, and his 
weapon is still an unnaturally big axe. The French author 
of Caradoc has also done more or less condensing: he 
omitted the stranger's speech in praise of the court,^ and he 
undoubtedly shortened the dialogue and cut out a number 
of details. 

Evidently, then, the Challenge in Caradoc is not the 
source of the Challenge in Gawain. On the other side of the 
account, however, the French Gawain and the Green Knight 
cannot be the source of the Challenge in the Livre de Caradoc. 
For in some respects the EngHsh poem (in dependence, we 
may be sure, on its immediate French original) has lost old 
features which Caradoc has retained. This is due in part to 
changes in the Challenge story suggested or necessitated by 
its combination with the Temptation to make up the plot of 
Gawain and the Green Knight. Thus, in the Irish and in 

1 The taunt which the stranger utters in the Irish is, however, preserved 
in the Livre de Caradoc as well as in Gawain and the Green Knight, and this 
taunt certainly points to the presence in the immediate source of the Caradoc 
of the passage celebrating the reputation of the court. 



r . 



LE LIVRE DE CARADOC 35 

Caradoc, the stranger returns to the king's court to exact the 
return-blow; the hero is not required, as in Gawain, to 
search out the stranger's dwelling and present himself 
there. This variation was of course occasioned by the neces- 
sity of bringing Gawain to Bernlak's castle, where the ad- 
ventures included in the Temptation had to take place. 
The shift in the scene of the return-blow brings with it 
certain minor changes which need not be specified. 

In its account of the return-blow the Caradoc is much 
closer than the Gawain to The Champion's Bargain. In the 
Caradoc, the challenger does not actually strike at the hero 
three times (as in the Gawain) : he is twice ready to strike, 
but is interrupted by the king and the queen; the third 
time he deals a harmless blow with the flat of the sword (the 
back of the axe in the Irish) . The interruptions by Arthur 
and Guinevere take the place of the byplay of the block 
and the short neck,^ which was far too grotesque for the 
knightly feeHngs of the Caradoc poet (or for some predeces- 
sor of his in the direct line) . But, except for this change, the 
Irish is followed closely enough. In Gawain and the Green 
Knight, we remember, Gawain *' shrinks a little with his 
shoulders" as the axe descends for the first time. The chal- 
lenger checks the weapon in full career, and upbraids him 
with cowardice. The second time Gawain stands like a rock, 
but the challenger similarly checks the axe, and, remarking 
that now he can properly hit him, since he is no longer in 
terror, brings the weapon down for the third time, cutting 
the neck sHghtly. This sHght injury is then explained as due 
to Gawain's having failed to be absolutely true to his bar- 
gain — since he retained the magic lace that he ought to have 

^ The author's own text of the Caradoc probably had the block (see p. 
32), but it certainly omitted the trait of the short neck, so much emphasized 
in the Irish. There is no block in the English romance. 



36 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

given to Bernlak. This last change in Gawain is directly 
due, of course, to the combination of the Challenge with the 
Temptation. Caradoc is much nearer The Champion's Bar- 
gain. We shall return to this point by-and-by.^ 

The closeness of the Livre de Caradoc to The Champion^ s 
Bargain in one significant detail not found in Gawain and the 
Green Knight extends to actual similarity of phraseology. 
When the stranger knight returns to Arthur's court to claim 
the return-blow, he utters no greeting, but calls at once for 

Caradoc: 

" Carados, je ne te voie mie; 
Vien avant, si auras tel feste, 
Met me ci en present ta teste, 
Car ge i mis autant la moie." ^ 

" Here I am," replies Caradoc. Compare the Irish tale: — 
'' As they were there, then, at the close of the day, they saw 
the carl approaching them. ' Where is Cuchulinn ? ' said 
he. ' Here am I, then,' said Cuchulinn." Here, too, the 
variation on the part of the English poem is due to the 
amalgamation of the Challenge with the Temptation. 
There is no possible place for any such passage in Gawain 
and the Green Knight. 

It is clear, then, that the Challenge in the Livre de Caradoc 
is not taken from the lost French' Gawain and the Green 
Knight, and equally clear that the French Gawain did not 
derive the incident from the Caradoc. The Caradoc version 
(C) and the Gawain version (G) are mutually independent; 
for each, as we have seen, preserves important details of the 
Irish story that do not appear in the other. 

1 See pp. 40-41, 73-74. 

2 Montpellier MS. In the Mons MS. the passage runs: 

" Caraduel," fait il, " u es tu ? " 
" Vees me ci," fait Caraduel. 
" Dont vien avant," repont iluec. 
"Volentiers" (vv. 12776-79). 



LE LIVRE DE CARADOC 37 

Yet the Caradoc version and the Gawain version resemble 
each other closely in noteworthy particulars in which both 
differ from the Irish tale. The two poems proceed side by 
side (except for the differences already mentioned) to the 
moment when the decapitated challenger leaves the hall. 
In both, Arthur will not eat till he has seen or heard of an 
adventure. While dinner is waiting a stranger enters and 
rides up to the dais. He is richly dressed in green. In Cara- 
doc he wears a garland of flowers/ befitting the Pentecost 
season; in Gawain he carries a bob of holly, appropriate for 
Christmastide. He proposes the " game " in practically 
identical terms: he is to suffer the first stroke, and to exact 
the return blow a year hence. [The Champion^ s Bargain is 
very different. The stranger proposes to decapitate his 
opponent first and then to submit to having his own head 
cut off. When this arrangement is objected to, and the 
opposite procedure is proposed by Munremar, the stranger 
cavils, but at last consents. The return blow is to take place 
on the next day, not after a year.] In both Caradoc and 
Gawain the challenge is accepted and the challenger be- 
headed by one hero only, not (as in the Irish) by three. At 
parting, the challenger reminds his opponent of what is to be 
expected in a twelvemonth. The language in which, near 
the end of the story, Caradoc upbraids the stranger for 
slowness in striking is similar to that employed by Gawain 
on the same occasion: 

Carados li a dit par ire: 
" Porquoi ne ferez-vos, beau sire ? 
De .n. morz me ferez morir 
Qui tant aesmes sans ferir. 
Moult vos en tieng ore a couart." ^ 

1 See p. 32. 

2 Montpellier MS. The Mons MS. reads: 

" Chevalier, moult par es couars," 

Fait Caraduel; " fai erramment 

Cou que tu dois," (vv 12802-4, HI, 131). 



38 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Compare the English: ^' Why, thresh on, thou bold man! 
Thou threatest too long. I think thy heart grows cowardly 
at thy own self." A like speech is found in the Irish tale, but 
it is by no means so close to the EngHsh and the French 
poem as these are to each other: '' It is torment that you are 
putting upon me, said CuchuHnn. Slay me quickly." 

Since, as we have just seen, the version of the Challenge 
in Gawain and the Green Knight cannot be derived from that 
in Caradoc, nor the version in Caradoc from that in Gawain 
and the Green Knight, the special agreements between the 
Caradoc and the Gawain version over against the Irish story 
prove beyond question that the author of the Caradoc and 
the author of the French Gawain drew independently from a 
common source. This source was undoubtedly in French 
and in all probability was a brief episodical romance of 
Gawain, to whom it was natural for any French writer to 
attach such an adventure when it attracted his attention. 
This brief romance (which we may call R) is easily recon- 
structed. It was doubtless confined to the story of the 
Challenge, which it had derived (mediately or immediately) 
from an Irish literary version very similar to the extant 
Champion'' s Bargain; and it must have contained (i) all 
those features of the Irish which are preserved in either the 
Caradoc version or the Gawain version, and (2) all those 
features in which the Caradoc and the Gawain agree against 
the Irish. 

The French Romance of the Challenge (R) 

The lost Old French romance of the Challenge (R), the 
common source of the Challenge in the Livre de Caradoc and 
in the French Gawain and the Green Knight may be recon- 
structed as follows: ^ 

^ I signifies The Champion'' s Bargain; C, the Livre de Caradoc -y G, 
Gawain and the Green Knight. 



THE FRENCH CHALLENGE 39 

King Arthur (CG) is holding high court (ICG) at Carduel 
(C, Camelot G) in the Pentecost season (C, at New Year G). 
The feast is ready, but he refuses to begin until some strange 
news shall come or some strange adventure happen, for such 
is his custom (CG). Then there rides (CG) in at the hall 
door a gigantic man (IG, very tall knight C) in green attire 
(CG) with a garland of flowers on his head (C, a bob of holly 
in one hand G). He is armed with a huge battle-axe (IG, 
a very long sword C). Riding up to the dais (CG), he chal- 
lenges the court to the beheading game (ICG), declaring 
that he has come hither for that purpose on account of their 
brilliant reputation, which he celebrates in elaborate terms 
(IG). He will submit to the first stroke (CG,cf. I). If he 
survives it, he is to have the right to deal a blow in return 
(ICG) after a year's interval (CG). The knights are in con- 
sternation (ICG). One of them remarks that only a fool 
would accept such a proposition (C , cf . I) . The visitor taunts 
the court: its reputation is lost forever (ICG). Arthur 
accepts the challenge, but gives way to Gawain (G; cf. I, 
in which the king is particularly exempted) . The stranger 
dismounts (CG) and lays his head on a block (IC; he has 
brought the block with him in I but not in C) . Gawain 
decapitates him with a single stroke (ICG) and the head 
falls to the floor (IG, the dais C). The stranger picks up 
his head (ICG) by the hair (CG), and departs without 
replacing it (IG; he replaces it in C). But before he goes, 
he rehearses the covenant (CG), promising to come back 
in a year (C) and warning Gawain not to fail him (CG). 
The knights are much concerned at their comrade's danger 
(ICG). 

After a year (CG) the court assembles again (ICG). The 
challenger returns, as he had promised (IC). "Where are 
you, Gawain ? " he cries. " Come forward and endure a 



40 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

blow, as I did " (IC). " Here I am," replies Gawain (IC), 
and extends his neck for the stroke (ICG). Twice the 
stranger makes ready to smite but refrains (ICG), and 
Gawain grows impatient (ICG). " Strike," he cries, " and 
do not keep me in suspense! (ICG). I think you are afraid 
to give the blow " (CG). At last the stranger strikes (ICG), 
but with the back of the axe (I, flat of the sword C, cuts 
Gawain slightly G). '^ Rise up, Gawain! " he cries (IC). 
" I have no wish to strike you (C), for you are the best of 
knights (IG, a very valiant knight C). 

In one point our reconstruction of version R has been left 
rather vague, — namely, in the matter of the two feints 
that precede the final harmless stroke. The reason for this 
vagueness is that here the Caradoc and Gawain versions do 
not agree, and that neither accords with The Champion's 
Bargain. In Caradoc, there is a block, but the weapon is a 
sword. The challenger is about to strike, when Arthur in- 
terposes with an offer of ransom. This he rejects, and is 
again on the point of striking, when the queen comes in with 
her equally fruitless bribe — his choice of amies. This being 
Hkewise rejected, he strikes Caradoc a harmless blow with 
the fiat of the sword. In the Irish, the challenger declines to 
strike after CuchuKnn has laid down his head, and calls 
upon Cuchulinn to stretch his neck across the block. The 
hero makes an effort, but his neck is too short for the huge 
block that the challenger has brought, and the challenger 
once more refuses to deal the blow. Then Cuchulinn ex- 
tends his neck stupendously, so that it fits the block, and 
receives a harmless blow with the back of the axe. 

In Gawain and the Green Knight, there is no block. Gawain 
'' shrinks a little with his shoulders " as the first blow falls, 
and the challenger, checking the descent of the axe, reproves 
him for cowardice. At the second stroke, Gawain remains 



THE FRENCH CHALLENGE 4 1 

motionless, but this time too the Green Knight checks the 
axe, remarking that now it is proper for him to strike, since 
Gawain has recovered his courage. Then comes the third 
blow, which cuts a slight gash in Gawain's neck, but does no 
real injury. 

Obviously, the episodical romance R, the common source 
of the Challenge in Caradoc and Gawain, retained the block, 
but either the author of R (or some predecessor) changed it 
from a huge tree-trunk that the challenger brought with 
him C a load for twenty yoke of oxen ") to an ordinary log 
of wood that chanced to be lying in the hall. The change 
brought with it, of necessity, an abandonment of the chal- 
lenger's reason for twice refusing to strike — the shortness 
of the hero's neck. Still, R must have retained the two re- 
fusals, in some form (for they occur in both Caradoc and 
Gawain), and must have accounted for them in some 
fashion. But Gawain and the Green Knight cannot here be 
true to R. In R, we remember, the events all take place at 
court, and its author would never have allowed Gawain to 
show a trace of fear in the royal presence and with the great 
Pentecostal assembly gazing at him. Then, too, the slight 
cut at the third stroke is a punishment for Gawain's venial 
fault in concealing the lace, — a taHsman which only came 
into the story when the Challenge and the Temptation were 
combined in a single plot. 

Caradoc, on the other hand, may well be pretty close to R. 
The two interruptions (by the king and the queen) are quite 
satisfactory and natural substitutes, in a chivalric French 
romance, for the grotesque incident of the huge block and 
the short neck. We may confidently accept them, then, as 
derived by the Caradoc from R, its source for the Challenge. 
The final blow is well preserved in the Livre. — with the 
trifling change from back of axe to flat of sword. 



42 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Indeed, we observe throughout that the Caradoc version is 
a tolerably faithful reproduction of R, and that the version in 
Gawain departs from R in important respects. Most of these 
changes are incidental to the process of welding together 
the Challenge with the Temptation and were undoubtedly 
made by the French author. The English poet elaborated 
details, but there is no likelihood that he modified the plot of 
his immediate original to any considerable extent. 

La Mule sanz Frain 

The importance of the version of the Challenge contained 
in La Mule sanz Frain (or La Demoisele a la Mure) by 
Paien de Maisieres, makes necessary a somewhat full 
summary of that early thirteenth-century poem. 

A damsel appears at Arthur's court, riding a mule without a bridle. 
She calls for a knight who will recover the bridle belonging to her 
mount. He is to ride the mule, which will convey him to the proper 
destination, and meanwhile the damsel is to remain at court. Kay 
essays the task, but returns in disgrace, as usual. Gawain then sets 
out, and of course succeeds. 

The route is unknown to Gawain, who simply allows the mule to 
go its own way. The mule conveys him through a wood full of lions 
and other wild animals and a valley peopled by serpents and scorpions 
and fire-breathing monsters, but the wild beasts recognize and make 
obeisance to the mule and do the rider no harm and the serpents are 
likewise inoffensive. Then he passes through a kind of valley of the 
shadow of death, and enters a beautiful meadow, in which there is a 
deUcious fountain. At last he comes to a deep and rapid river, spanned 
by a bridge consisting of a single bar of iron. Over this the mule 
carries him in safety, though the bar bends in a terrifying way. Be- 
yond the river is a castle, well fortified, and surrounded with sharp 
stakes, on all but one of which is the severed head of a previous 
adventurer. The castle revolves incessantly. Awaiting his moment, 
Gawain urges forward the mule, which brings him through the castle 
gate at a bound, losing almost half its tail in the manoeuvre. Within 
the walls is a town, which appears to be deserted; not a soul is to be 
seen in the streets. Soon, however, Gawain is greeted by a dwarf. 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 



43 



and presently he is confronted by a vilain, who emerges from a cellar 
or underground vault. The vilain is bushy-haired; he is black and 
of frightful appearance, taller than St. Marcel, and carries on his 
shoulder a great battle-axe (jusarme). He conducts Gawain to a 
house, serves him with food, and makes a bed for him. Before Gawain 
goes to bed, however, the churl proposes sl jeu parti: Gawain is to 
cut off his head with the axe and he is to retaliate next morning 
[or he is to behead Gawain first and Gawain may serve him in the 
same fashion next day].^ Gawain of course prefers to begin the 
game. The churl then lays his neck on a block (tronc) and is decapi- 
tated. Instantly he leaps to his feet, picks up his head, and disappears 
in the cellar. Gawain sleeps sound. Next morning the vilain returns, 
with his head in place and the gisarm on his shoulder. Gawain extends 
his neck on the block. The churl raises his axe, but he has no wish 
to harm Gawain, for the knight had kept his covenant and was very 
loyal. 

It now appears that the vilain is in the service of the lady to whom 
the castle belongs. Henceforth he is friendly to Gawain, whose 
troubles, however, are by no means over. Before he can win the 
bridle, he must fight with two Uons. After this, he enters the castle 
proper where he encounters a knight, whom he overcomes. The 
knight then goes off and disappears from the story. Next Gawain 
kills two serpents which breathe blood and fire. 

His perils are now past. The dwarf appears and conducts him 
into the presence of the lady of the castle, who, after jestingly reprov- 
ing him for " kilhng all her wild beasts," entertains him at supper and 
offers him her possessions and herself. She is the mistress of thirty- 
eight castles besides that in which the scene is laid, and she informs 
Gawain that the damsel who visited Arthur's court is her sister. 
Gawain begs pardon: he wants only the bridle. Receiving this, he 
leaves the city, where, he says, he has already stayed too long. The 
streets are now alive with joyous citizens, who have all been in 
hiding for fear of the lions and serpents. Arrived at Arthur's court, 
Gawain gives the bridle to the damsel. The king and the queen beg 
her to stay with them and to take an ami from among the knights. 
She would remain, she rephes, if she dared, but it is impossible. Her 
mule is brought and she mounts, — the king offers to conduct her 
on her way, but she says she wishes no escort. 

Congi^ prent, et si s'en depart; 
Si se remist en I'anbleiire. 

1 A lacuna in the text of La Mule is supplied from Heinrich von dem 
Tttrlln (see pp. 51-52). 



44 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

De la damoisele a la mure, 

Qui s'en est tote seule alee, Si 

Est ci I'aventure fin^e. '^ 

Let us now examine the Challenge in the version afforded 
by La Mule sanz Frain. Though much condensed, this 
version exhibits remarkable agreements with The Cham- 
pion's Bargain in points in which the Livre de Caradoc and 
Gawain and the Green Knight are at variance with the Irish 
tale. 

1 . The person who challenges Gawain is not a knight but 
a churl (vilain). His manners are better than those of the 
Irish giant, but in appearance he is very similar to that re- 
doubtable axeman. He is frightful to look upon: " trestot 
herupe " (v. 506). Any one who had seen him would have 
said " qu'il elist son oirre perdu " (v. 508). 

Mout sanble estre li vilains fel; 

Plus estoit granz que saint Marcel (w. 509-510). 

He resembles a Moor of Mauretania or one of these peasants 
of Champagne all tanned by the sun. [It is not said in the 
Irish that the Champion is black, but he wears *' an old hide 
next his skin, and a black tawny cloak about him." His 
hair is bushy, like that of the vilain.] 

2. There is Sijeu parti offered. Gawain may cut off the 
vilain* s head first, and take his turn on the morrow, or the 
vilain will cut off Gawain' s head first, and give Gawain a 
chance next day.^ In the Irish the giant's proposition is to 
cut off a man's head to-day and allow the man to return the 
stroke on the morrow; but Munremar suggests a reversal of 
the process, to which the challenger consents. 

3. A highly significant agreement with The Champion's 
Bargain appears in the following Hnes: 

1 See p. 51, below. 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 45 

Fors de laienz s'en ist Gauvains, 

Lou col li estent sor lo tronc, 

Et li vilains li dist adonc : 

" Lesse col venir a plente." 

" Je n'en ai plus," fet-il, " par De, 

Mes j&er i, se ferir i viax " (w. 620-625). 

This is so condensed as to be barely intelligible, but com- 
parison with The Champion's Bargain makes everything 
clear. In the Irish tale the block is so big that CuchuUnn's 
neck is too short for it. The giant insists that CuchuHnn 
shall adjust his neck to the block; otherwise, he declares, it 
is impossible to hit him squarely. Thereupon the hero, by 
the exertion of his superhuman strength, stretches his neck 
so that it fits the block perfectly. 

These three points in which La Mule preserves features of 
the Irish original that are lost in both the Caradoc and the 
Gawain, prove that La Mule does not owe its knowledge of 
the Challenge to either of these poems. It might be con- 
tended that La Mule drew from the same lost episodical 
romance (R), reconstructed above, from which the Caradoc 
and the Gawain got the Challenge. On that hypothesis, the 
episodic French romance of the Challenge (R) must have 
taken over from its Irish source thejeu parti, the enormous 
block, and the grotesque incident of the hero's stretching his 
neck to the utmost; while the Caradoc poet and the author 
of the French Gawain and the Green Knight, acting indepen- 
dently of each other in adapting R to their purposes, must 
have dropped the block (Gawain) or its huge size (Caradoc) 
— and as a logical result, the neck-stretching — and must 
also have abandoned the jeu parti, all by mere coincidence of 
taste or judgment. 

Such a coincidence in omission is by no means improbable 
per se, but there is an alternative hypothesis which avoids it. 
The author of La Mule sanz Frain may have known the 



46 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

episodical romance in a version (which we will call 0) some- 
what earlier and ruder than R. In that case, we must sup- 
pose that O retained the incidents in question from its Irish 
original; that La Mule got the Challenge story from O, and 
kept these same incidents; that the author of R, in revising 
and rewriting O, abandoned them; and that they are lacking 
in the Livre de Caradoc and in Gawain and the Green Knight 
because they had already been dropped in R, the common 
source from which these two poems derived the story of the 
Challenge. This hypothesis seems to me more probable 
than the former; and it accords with the conclusion at 
which we have already arrived^ that R had dropped the 
neck-stretching — an Irish incident that La Mule retains. 
The hypothesis is farther confirmed beyond a reasonable 
doubt by the fact that La Mule agrees with the Irish in 
describing the challenger as a gigantic, ugly, shaggy-haired 
churl, black or dressed in black, whereas in R (as repre- 
sented by both Caradoc and Gawain) he is a knight magnifi- 
cently attired in green. R cannot have been the source 
from which Paien took the description, and, since there is no 
UkeHhood that he went back to the Irish without an inter- 
mediary, the existence of O is raised to a practical certainty. 

It is extremely probable, though not a part of the argu- 
ment, that was written in England in the Anglo-Norman 
dialect, and that R was a rifacimento of in some form of 
Continental French. O and R, at all events, told the same 
story (the Challenge) in substantially identical terms, and 
their scope was limited to that single adventure. 

In both versions of the episodical French romance of the 
Challenge (0 and R) , the scene of the adventure must have 
been Arthur's court, and both poems must have contained 
the stranger's tribute to the fame of the royal comitatus and 

1 P. 41. 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 47 

his taunting speech when he finds the warriors reluctant. 
Manifestly, then, if we accept R or as the source from 
which La Mule derived the Challenge, we are required to 
account for the transference of the whole adventure, in 
La Mule, from the king's court to the castle where the gigan- 
tic challenger lives. An explanation is the more imperative 
because, in this particular feature. La Mule accords, not 
with The Champion's Bargain (and therefore with O and R); 
but with the other extant Irish version, in which the behead- 
ing game is proposed to Cuchulinn and his rivals by the 
water-giant Uath when they visit him, and the scene of the 
decapitation is the shore of Uath's loch. 

At first sight, this agreement between La Mule and the 
Uath version seems to compHcate our pedigree pretty 
seriously. One might argue, for instance, that the Challenge 
incident in La Mule goes back, somehow, to an Irish version 
considerably different from the Irish source of R-0 ; or even 
that it had two Irish sources, or two French sources (O and 
another) independently derived from the Irish. Either of 
these hypotheses would involve the assumption that the 
Irish tale of the Challenge made its way into French inde- 
pendently at two different times and in two different forms. 

Fortunately, however, the required explanation is very 
easy to give, and involves no such complexities. La Mule 
sanz Frain, in its main plot, belongs to a well-defined and 
familiar t3^e, abundantly represented in both mdrchen and 
romance: — A hero is summoned to an enchanted city, 
where he performs divers tasks or exploits which accompUsh 
a reversal of the spells; thereupon the '' waste city " be- 
comes inhabited again, and the lady, released from her 
magical bondage, offers her hand and her possessions to the 
triumphant adventurer.^ Now the story of the Challenge 

^ For a study of this type of mdrchen, see pp. 231 ff. 



48 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

(or the Beheading Game) has no essential or original con- 
nection with a tale of this type. It existed, as we know, 
quite independently of La Mule sanz Frain and long before 
that poem was written. The author of La Mule derived the 
Challenge story from (a short episodical romance), and 
utilized it to enrich his narrative, changing or omitting such 
details as were inconsistent with his main plot. In this pro- 
cess, of course, he transferred the beheading game from 
Arthur's court (its scene in 0) to the Waste City, for only in 
that way could he use it as one of the unspelling exploits 
which his hero had to perform after passing through the 
enchanted portal. 

The agreement of La Mule, then, with the Uath version 
(as against The Champion^ s Bargain and 0-R) in locating 
the Challenge at the home of the challenger, is not due to 
any historical or genetic relation between La Mule and the 
Uath form of the adventure. It is a chance coincidence, — 
the purely fortuitous result of an alteration made by Paien 
for his own immediate purpose. This change in the scene of 
the Challenge of course necessitated the omission of the 
stranger's laudatory address to the court, and of his jibes at 
the backwardness of the knights, both of which, as we have 
seen, were preserved in O and R. 

Clearly, therefore, there is nothing in the evidence before 
us that prevents our deriving the Challenge in Za Mule 
from O immediately, and, through 0, from an Irish version 
practically identical with The Champion^ s Bargain. 

Further, we can even find a plausible reason for Paien's 
insertion of the Challenge (or Beheading Game) into the 
plot of his Mule sanz Frain. In the immediate source of this 
poem, the enchanted city and its mistress were doubtless 
held in subjection by a magician with whom the adventurer 
had to fight, as in the similar tale of Li Biaus DesconeuSy in 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 49 

La Joie de la Cort in Chretien's Erec, and elsewhere.^ Now 
it is quite possible that this enchanter had the faculty of 
causing his severed head to return to his shoulders, — a 
well-known accomplishment in popular fiction.^ Such a 
feature in the source of Paien's main plot would inevitably 
remind him of the story of the jew parti of decapitation (the 
Challenge), which he certainly knew, as we have seen, in a 
form closely resembling The Champion's Bargain, and it 
would then be an obvious idea for him to insert it into his 
own composition. This conjecture derives some support 
from a story in the Kathd-sarit-sdgara which — though, of 
course, not the source of La Mule sanz Frain — is an excel- 
lent specimen of the type to which that source certainly 
belonged. 

The hero Indivarasena received a sword in a dream from a goddess. 
" By the power of this sword," said she, '* thou shalt conquer enemies 
hard to overcome, and whatever thou shalt think of thou shalt 
obtain." He awoke with the sword in his hand. After travelling (in 
company with his brother) a long distance, he found a splendid city, 
with golden houses. At the portal stood a terrible raLshasa, who told 
him it was the abode of the King of the Rakshasas. Indivarasena 
tried to enter, and decapitated the porter, who attempted resistance, 
with one blow of his magic sword. 

Indivarasena entered the royal palace, where the King of the 
Rakshasas sat on his throne, with a lovely woman at his left hand and 
a beautiful maiden at his right. Indivarasena went up and challenged 
him to fight. The king drew his sword. " And in the course of the 
fight Indivarasena frequently cut off the Rakshasa's head, but it grew 
again. Seeing that magic power of his, and having had a sign made 
to him by the virgin at the rakshasa's side, who had fallen in love with 
him at first sight, the prince, after cutting off the head of the rakshasa, 
being quick of hand, again cut it in two with a stroke of his sword. 
Then the rakshasa's magic was baffled by contrary magic, and his 

^ On the Joie de la Cort and Li Biaus Desconeus see Paris, Romania, XX, 
152 ff.; Schofield, Sttidies on the Libeaus Desconus, [Harvard] Studies and 
Notes, IV, 124 ff.; Philipot, Romania, XXV, 258 ff. 

2 Pp. 147 ff. 



so GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

head did not grow again, and the rakshasa died of the wound." Both 
the lovely woman and the princess were delighted. The hero asked: 
" Why did this rakshasa live in such a city as this, guarded by one 
warder only, and who are you two, and why do you rejoice at his 
being slain ? " The virgin replied that the rakshasa had devoured 
the rightful king of the city " by the help of his magic power." He 
also ate up the attendants, but spared the queen and made her his 
v/ife. The virgin was the younger sister of the rakshasa, and the hero 
took her to wife.^ 

We may reasonably conjecture that, in the source of La 
Mule sanz Frain, the enchanter who held the lady of the 
castle captive and her city fast bound in chains of magic, 
had the ability to play fast and loose with his own head. 
Paien (or some predecessor in the direct line), being familiar, 
as we know he was, with the Challenge to decapitation in an 
episodic romance of Gawain (R or O), was reminded of it by 
this accomplishment of his enchanter's, and so inserted it 
into his plot. This made it necessary for him to change the 
malignant magician of his source into a friendly person who 
was glad to spare Gawain, and hence a knight had to be 
invented to do the real fighting with the hero. No pains 
were taken, however, to dispose of this knight, who simply 
disappears from the story when he is overcome. No en- 
chanter is left in the romance, which thus becomes irra- 
tional and incomplete. The lady, who must have been glad 
to have the lions and serpents slain and the city disen- 
chanted, absurdly pretends to have ground of offence against 
Gawain for " kiUing her beasts," and yet rewards him by an 
offer of her hand and her extensive possessions. She is 
nowhere said to have been under spells, though the condi- 
tion of her city and the whole course of the plot show that 
such must have been the case.^ 

1 Book vii, chap. 42, Tawney's translation, I, 384-387. 

2 See pp. 242 ff. for an analysis of the plot. 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 5 1 

Whether this conjecture as to the moving cause for the 
insertion of the Challenge is accepted or not, makes no 
difference in our main argument. That the Challenge is an 
insertion is, at all events, certain, for it is nothing but The 
Champion's Bargain, — condensed, but surprisingly well pre- 
served, — and it existed long before La Mule was written. 

Practically the entire Mule sanz Frain is embodied by 
Heinrich von dem Turlin in his rambling and interminable 
romance Diu Crone,^ thought to date from 1210 or there- 
about. Heinrich makes a few changes in the episode of the 
Challenge; but these are not significant for our investiga- 
tion, since they are the fruits of his own fancy. One of 
them, however, has a certain interest as showing how a con- 
temporary understood the situation in the Waste City. 
Paien, we remember, says nothing of the spells to which the 
city and its inhabitants are subjected, and no enchanter 
figures in his narrative. We have entertained the conjecture 
that there was such a personage in the source of his main 
plot, and that the insertion of the Challenge disordered the 
story in this particular. Heinrich, it is agreeable to note, 
also felt that a magician was somehow missing in La Mule, 
and supplied one in his usual freehanded way. He did this 
by explaining that the vilain was really Gansguoter, " ein 
pfaffe wol gelert," who had taken a monstrous shape for the 
nonce. It was he that contrived the whirling castle, and he 
had done many other strange things. Heinrich's device is 
so lamely handled that his explanation raises more questions 
than it settles in the reader's mind; but, such as it is, it has a 
modicum of interpretative value.^ 

At a critical point in the story — the place where the 
vilain proposes the jeu parti — Heinrich had a better text of 

1 Vv. 1 2601 ff., ed. Scholl, pp. 155 flf. 

2 For further details see pp. 251 ff. 



52 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

La Mule than ours. I have accordingly used his verses to 
fill a lacuna in the French, which is unintelligible as it 
stands in the unique manuscript. Let us speak well, then, 
of the bridge that carries us safely over! 

Perlesvaus 

In the conglomerate prose romance known as Perlesvaus 
there occurs an excessively curious version of the Challenge. 
It is told in two distinct chapters, separated by many pages 
of miscellaneous adventure that have nothing to do with our 
subject. The hero is not Gawain, but Lancelot, and the 
story has been treated with great freedom. 

Lancelot wanders into a waste country, where there is neither beast 
nor bird, so poor is the land and so dry, and enters a great city. It is 
empty of people; the walls and gates are crumbHng with age, and all 
the houses are ruinous. He draws rein before the finest and most 
ancient of the palaces, and hears knights and ladies making their 
moan: — " Alas! " they are saying to some knight, " alas that you 
go to your death in such a way, and that there is no help for it! " 

Soon Lancelot sees a young and handsome knight, richly dressed 
and wearing a golden chaplet, come down through the hall with a 
great axe in his hand. He dismounts at this knight's invitation and 
asks his pleasure. " Sir," is the response, " you must cut off my head 
with this axe or I will cut off yours." ^ Lancelot objects, but the other 
says that it must be so, since Lancelot has entered the city. Lancelot 
replies that he would be a fool who did not make the better choice in 
such dijeu parti? " You must promise to return in a year," continues 
the knight, " and must then submit your head to the same danger to 
which I expose mine." ' Lancelot accepts the condition, since he had 
rather die in a year than be killed on the spot. The young knight 

1 " II couvient que vos me copez la teste de ceste hache, car de ceste 
arme est ma mort jugiee, ou je vos an trancherai la vostre" (Potvin, I, 103). 

2 " II seroit mout fox qui de cest jeu-parti ne panroit le meillor a son eus " 

(1,103). 

' " Vos me creanteroiz, aingois que je muire, que vos revendroiz dedanz 
ceste cite antre ci et un an, et que vos metroiz vostre chief en autretel abandon 
sanz chalonge conme li miens iert mis " (I, 103). 



PERLESVAUS S3 

requires a solemn oath, rehearsing the terms of the compact.^ Then 
he kneels down and stretches out his neck as much as he can {estant 
le col au plus quHl pent). Lancelot begs the knight to change his 
mind and to have mercy on himself. " Then let me cut off your 
head," the knight answers, "for I can spare myself on no other 
terms." "In God's name!" says Lancelot, "I cannot consent to 
that." So Lancelot cuts off his head with a blow that makes it fly 
seven feet from the trunk. Then he throws down the axe, returns to 
his horse, mounts, and looks back; but he can see nothing of the body 
or the head; he hears a great cry of knights and ladies, afar in the 
city, who say that the dead man shall be avenged in a year or sooner. 
So Lancelot rides out of the town.^ 

The fulfilment of Lancelot's pledge and the conclusion of 
the incident come much later in the romance. Meanwhile 
he is occupied in knight-errantry, as usual.^ 

After a year of divers adventures Lancelot rides, at midday, into 
the Waste City, which he finds in the same desolate condition as 
before. Scarcely has he entered when he hears a great cry of ladies, 
complaining that one knight more has failed them by not returning 
according to covenant; "He has proved recreant," they say, " as all 
before him have done." Lancelot sees nothing of the ladies and 
wonders where they can be. He rides to the palace and dismounts. 
Immediately there comes down a tall and handsome knight carrjdng 
the same axe, which he is whetting with a hone {d'une cueuz). Lance- 
lot asks him what he would do with the axe. The stranger recites the 
covenant, saying that it was his brother that Lancelot had killed a 
year ago, and that now Lancelot must kneel and stretch forth his 
neck as the knight had done and allow him to cut off his head. " If 
you refuse," he adds, " I will do it none the less. But I know that 
you will not refuse; else you would not have come hither." Then 
Lancelot kneels and stretches out his neck; but dodges the axe when 
it descends. " Sir," said the knight, " so did not my brother whom 
you killed; but he held his head and his neck still, and so ought you 
to do." Two damsels now appear at the windows of the palace. They 
recognize Lancelot, and one of them cries to the knight with the axe, 

^ " Ainssint ^ - ;'^''<:,'!-vos . . . que vos, d'ui cast jor an un an, a Teure 
que vos m'aurez ocis, ou eingois, revenroiz ici meismes et metrez vostre 
chief an autretel peril conme li miens iert ja mis, sans desfans " (I, 104). 

^ Potvin, I, 102-104. 

^ The coming danger is once mentioned in the interval (I, 196-197). 



54 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

who is about to strike once more : " If you desire my love, throw down 
the axe, and release this knight from his obhgation." Instantly the 
stranger casts down his weapon and falls at Lancelot's feet, " et H 
crie merci conme au plus loial chevalier del monde." Lancelot, in 
reply, asks mercy of him, whereupon the knight declares that he will 
not slay him. Then the damsels descend from the palace and approach 
Lancelot. They inform him that they are the two sisters whom he 
saw in so poor estate in the Waste Castle where he lodged with their 
brother, and to whom he and Gawain and another knight had given 
the possessions of the robbers whom the three had killed. [This 
refers to an earher adventure (Potvin, I, 91 ff.), which throws no 
light on the story that we are discussing. The author of Perlesvaus 
has worked the Challenge arbitrarily into his rambhng plot.] They 
add that this city and the Waste Castle would never have been 
peopled, and that they should never have regained their lands, had 
it not been for Lancelot or some other equally loyal knight. At least 
twenty have lodged there as he did, and have each cut off the head 
of a brother or cousin of theirs, with the promise to return and submit 
to a blow in recompense, but Lancelot is the first to keep his word. 
Unless he had been true, they should have lost this city, without 
recovering the cities belonging thereto. Then the knight and the 
damsels conduct Lancelot into the palace, and looking out, Lancelot 
sees that the city is repeopled [and apparently reedified as well.]^ 

This version of the Challenge is oddly sophisticated. The 
mysterious knight is no longer able to pick up his head and 
replace it. He is actually killed by Lancelot, and it is his 
brother who deals the return-blow. An attempt to make 
credible a tale of supernatural marvels has betrayed the 
author into the grossest absurdity. He sacrifices knight 
after knight, brothers and cousins, in reckless fashion. The 
male kindred was nearly used up when Lancelot arrived in 
the nick of time. Only the two brothers were left, and one 
of them Lancelot had to kill. Clearly, then, it was the last 
chance. If Lancelot had not returned, the country would 
have been forever lost to its rightiul ov»^' Us, lor it required 

1 Potvin, I, 231-234. For the Challenge see also the Welsh translation 
of Perlesvaus, chaps. 139, 189, 199-201 (Robert Williams, Sdections from 
the Hengwrt MSS., Vol. I, Y Seint Greal, pp. 258-260, 327, 347- 350 (English 
translation, pp. 605-606, 649-650, 663-665). 



PERLESVAUS SS 

two knights (besides Lancelot) to fulfil the conditions of the 
enchantment — one to be beheaded, the other to survive! 
Again, though the result of Lancelot's return is to disen- 
chant the city and its inhabitants, as well as the surrounding 
country, the author says nothing of spells. His description 
enables us to recognize the causes that have reduced the 
Waste City to its dismal pHght, — for we have waste cities 
enough in romances that express themselves clearly, — but 
he carefully refrains from any mention of enchantment. We 
simply learn that, if Lancelot had been untrue, the terri- 
tory would have passed out of the hands of the family for 
good: why, we are not informed. As our author tells the 
tale, it is impossible to see how Lancelot's fulfilment of his 
promise could restore the country to its true possessors. 
But he prefers to leave this question unanswered rather than 
to include statements about enchantment if he can avoid 
them. The repeopling of the Waste City is apparently 
accomplished, not by surcease of spells, but merely by the 
return of the inhabitants from the surrounding forest where 
they had been hiding [from what ?]. There is no mention of 
the land's becoming fertile again, nor is it said that the 
ruinous dweUings returned to their pristine splendor. Con- 
trast the way in which the waste city behaves in Li Biaus 
Desconeus, whose author is not afraid of supernatural 
incidents. In Li Biaus we are expressly told that the city 
was reduced to ruins by enchantment and that the inhabi- 
tants fled in terror.^ After the spells are dissolved, the 
denizens, lay and clerical, return, and holy water is sprinkled 
in the streets.^ 

Que vos feroie longes noveles ? 

Tot fu la cite restoree 

Et de boene gent bien puplee.^ 

1 Ed. Hippeau, vv. 3293 f., pp. 11 7-1 18. 

2 Vv. 3428 fif., 3452 ff. 3 Vv. 3627 ff. 



S6 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

The attempt to take the supernatural out of the Challenge in 
the Perlesvaus has made the episode altogether inconsequent. 

Yet in spite of sophistication and absurd false-reasonable- 
ness, the Perlesvaus keeps a number of old features in its 
version of the Challenge, and shows remarkable similarities 
now to one of the versions already studied, now to another. 

The Perlesvaus version offers a striking resemblance to 
La Mule sanz Frain in certain old features not preserved in 
either Caradoc or Gawain, and inferentially absent from 
their common source — the episodical romance that we 
have called R. 

1. Perlesvaus and La Mule are the only versions, except 
The Champion's Bargain and Humbaut,^ that keep the jeu 
parti. This is well preserved in La Mule,^ less satisfactorily 
(but with sufficient clearness) in Perlesvaus; and both texts 
apply the term jeu parti to the proposition made by the 
challenger. 

2. There is also a similarity between Lancelot's and 
Gawain's reply. In Perlesvaus the knight tells Lancelot to 
cut off his head, adding that if Lancelot refuses, he will cut 
off his. This appears to be a mere threat of death, but 
observe what follows : Lancelot answers that in such a jeu 
parti only a fool could hesitate, and Gawain says the same 
thing in La Mule. 

" Sire," fet Lanceloz, " il seroit mout fox qui de cest jeu-parti ne 
panroit le meillor a son eus " {Perlesvaus, I, 103). 

" Mout saure," fait Gauvains, " petit, 

Se je ne sai louquel je preigne. 

Je prendre conment qu'il aviegne: 

Anuit la toie trencherai, 

Et lou matin te renderai 

La moie, se viax que la rende." 

{La Mule sanz Frain, vv. 580-585). 
^ See p. 62. 
2 When the text has been corrected by the aid of Heinrich (see pp. 51-52). 



PERLESVAUS 57 

3. The emphasis that Perlesvaus puts on the knight's 
" extending his neck as far as he can " looks like a weakened 
form of the incident in La Mule, which, as we have seen, is 
itself a reminiscence of CuchuHnn's extraordinary feat in the 
Irish story. 

These correspondences might be explained by supposing 
that Perlesvaus drew from La Mule; but since that would 
involve a dubious question of dates, it is safer to account for 
them by referring Perlesvaus to (the common source of 
La Mule and R). Perlesvaus also agrees with O in making 
the respite a year, a period which in La Mule is changed by 
the conditions of the main plot to a single night. 

So far, so good, but there is trouble ahead; for when we 
compare Perlesvaus with Gawain and the Green Knight, we 
are struck by three points of resemblance in details not 
occurring elsewhere. 

1. In Perlesvaus the second knight, when he descends 
from the hall to give Lancelot the return blow, is whetting 
his axe with a hone. So the Green Knight at the Green 
Chapel, before he strikes at Gawain, whets his axe noisily. 
The detail is made much of in the English romance. 

Thene herde he of that hyge hil, in a harde roche, 
Bijonde the broke, in a bonke, a wonder breme noyse. 
Quat! hit clatered in the clyff as hit cleue schulde, 
As one vpon a gryndelston hade grounden a sythe. 
What! hit wharred and whette as water at a mulne. 
What! hit rusched and ronge rawthe to here (w. 2199 ff.)- 

2. Lancelot dodges the first blow in Perlesvaus. So 
Gawain " shrinks a little with his shoulders " as the Green 
Knight's axe descends the first time. 

3. The knight in the Perlesvaus reproves Lancelot for 
dodging, exactly as the Green Knight upbraids Gawain. 
The terms of the reproof are ahnost identical: — 



58 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Sire chevaliers, ainsint ne fist mie mes freres que vos oceistes, ainz tint 
le chief et le col tout quoi, et ausint vos couvient-il feire (I, 233). 

Nawther fyked I, ne flaje, freke, quen thu myntest, 

Ne kest no kauelacoun, in kyngej hous Arthor; 

My hede flag to my fote, and get flag I neuer (vv. 2274 ff.)- 

The first of these three matters — the whetting of the axe 
— gives us no trouble. It is a mere trifle, which may have 
been independently added to the story more than once. 
Only when the Challenge and the Temptation were com- 
bined in a single plot, came the opportunity to develop this 
detail in verses so weirdly impressive as to tempt one to 
exaggerate its value as testimony. And, after all, the deri- 
vation of Perlesvaus from O accounts for the whetting in 
both Perlesvaus and Gawain: it stood in O, we may suppose, 
but was dropped by La Mule; R took it from O, and the 
Gawain from R (though the Caradoc dropped it). So much 
for the first special agreement between Perlesvaus and 
Gawain and the Green Knight. 

The dodging and the reproof, however, are not so easily 
disposed of. These form a single incident, the reproof being 
the logical result of the dodging, and its very terms growing 
out of the situation. There was no such incident in O or 
R. It was invented by the French author of Gawain and the 
Green Knight to replace the interruptions of Arthur and 
Guinevere, which were no longer available to account for 
the two feints or abortive blows, now that the scene had been 
shifted from the court to the challenger's abode. The 
incident, then, was either borrowed by the author of the 
Perlesvaus from the French Gawain, or was his invention 
likewise. The former alternative would give the Perlesvaus 
version of the Challenge two distinct sources, — the French 
Gawain as well as 0. This is possible enough in nature, but 
not very likely. It is far more probable that the author of 



PERLESVAUS 59 

Perlesvaus used his own intellect in what, after all, is no 
astonishing flight of fancy. He had the same impetus 
thereto that the Gawain poet had, — necessity. His source 
(0) furnished him with nothing that he found available to 
account for the two feints or abortive strokes. The block 
and the neck-stretching, which O had retained from the 
Irish, he abandoned as grotesque and unchivalrous. Some- 
thing had to be substituted, and what is more instinctive 
than to duck one's head as a blows descends ? In his story, 
as in Gawain and the Green Knight, the scene had been 
shifted to the challenger's abode, and there were no specta- 
tors visible. Thus even a model knight might be allowed to 
betray a little human weakness. So long as the scene of the 
whole story remained (as in the Irish and in O) the king's 
court, no dodging could be allowed. The rebuke, as we have 
seen, follows with inevitable logic form the dodging, and its 
terms are a matter of course. Nothing yet hinders us, then, 
from continuing to derive the Challenge story in Perlesvaus 
from O, the common source of La Mule and R, as we have 
already done on the strength of its agreement with La Mule 
and the Irish. 

Still, if the reader prefers to derive the episode in Per- 
lesvaus from La Mule, there is no conclusive evidence to 
prevent, unless indeed the Perlesvaus is the older work — a 
point that cannot be determined. One argument in favor of 
that theory would be the coincidence of the two texts in 
applying the adventure to the disenchantment of a waste 
city; but waste cities are common things in romance.^ 
Again, we have nothing that proves beyond question that 
Perlesvaus drew from O rather than from R. For all three 
of the points above mentioned (p. 56) in which Perlesvaus 
agrees with La Mule and the Irish against Caradoc and 

1 P. 238. 



6o GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Gawain may be explained away. These are, it will be re- 
membered, (i) the jeu parti, (2) the remark of the chal- 
lenged party that anybody would be a fool who did not 
take the easier horn of such a dilemma, and (3) the neck- 
stretching. As to the neck-stretching, that is but ambigu- 
ously preserved in Perlesvaus. The jeu parti may have 
stood in R and undergone simpUfication in Caradoc and 
Gawain independently. The remark of the challenged 
party may also have stood in R. In that case it was modi- 
fied in Caradoc and transferred to the knights in general or 
to Kay: — 

Ains dient li boin chevalier 

Que fols seroit qui gou feroit 

Qu'en aventure se metroit 

Se n'i aroit pris ne honor (w. 12674 ff., Mons.MS.). 

Fet Kex: " Ge nel feroie mie 

Por tot I'avoir de Normandie! 

Sire chevaliers, fox seroit 

Qui en tel maniere feroit (MontpeUier MS.). 

There is also one slight point of possible agreement be- 
tween Perlesvaus and R (as represented by Caradoc and 
Gawain) in something that was certainly not found in O. 
In Potvin's text of Caradoc the challenger — 

En son cief ot un capelet 

A un ciercle d'or de bounet (w. 12645-46). 

In the prose Perceval as quoted by Madden ^ there is an 
additional detail which doubtless belongs to the authentic 
text of the poem: the challenger " avoit dessus le bonnet 
ung cercle ou pendoit ung chapeau defleursJ^ ^ This decora- 
tion is preserved not only in Caradoc but also in Gawain, 
where the garland of flowers for Whitsuntide is changed to a 

^ P. 31, above. 



HUMBAUT 6 1 

bob of holly for Christmas. In R, then, the challenger wore 
a garland and perhaps also a golden circlet. Now in Per- 
lesvaus he " avoit un grant chapel, an son chief, d'or." ^ 
In and for itself such a comparison is trivial enough, but in 
so nice a balance it may count for something. 

On the whole, therefore, though I am convinced that 
Perlesvaus did not borrow the Challenge from La Mule sanz 
Frain, I cannot make up my mind postively between O and 
R. I incline towards O, however, and shall assume that 
derivation henceforth, though without dogmatism. For- 
tunately, the question affects our pedigree at no vital point. 
It concerns merely the individual history of the Perlesvaus, 
and its settlement one way or another would not modify our 
reconstruction either of R or of in any significant fashion. 

HUMBAUT 

In the Old French romance of Humhaut of the first half of 
the thirteenth century, the Challenge story appears in a 
curiously altered form. I summarize not only the incident 
itself, but enough of the setting to show the connection. 

Gawain is Arthur's messenger to the King of the Isles. His errand 
is to demand the submission and allegiance of that powerful monarch, 
who has hitherto acknowledged no overlord. Gawain enjoys the com- 
panionship of one Humbaut, a wise knight of the Round Table, who 
is well acquainted with the route and its perils, as well as with the 
pecuHarities of the insular realm, from which, indeed, he has just 
returned. After some miscellaneous adventures, including one with 
an Imperious Host,^ the two knights reach the Kingdom of the Isles 
in a ship. 

On the shore they encounter a knight whose duty it is to joust with 
every armed knight who arrives by sea; but Humbaut persuades him 
to wait for their return. Gawain and Humbaut ride up to the city 
gates, which stand open. Close to the road, but not (it seems) across 
it, lies a deep ditch, spanned by a single plank only a foot and a half 

1 Potvin, I, 103. 2 Yy 490-850 (see pp. 99 ff., below). 



62 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

in breadth. At midpoint of the plank sits a fierce fellow, who claims 
his privilege {droit) : namely, to fight (rough-and-tumble, apparently) 
with every foreign knight who passes. Gawain dismounts, walks 
gingerly out on the plank, and kicks the fellow into the fosse. They 
ride into the city without further opposition. It is quite clear that 
they are not obliged to cross the plank. The author has utiHzed the 
well-known incident of the Perilous Bridge in an eccentric and not 
very felicitous fashion. 

The streets are full of people, and everything looks prosperous and 
merry. As they ride toward the castle, a vagabond (pautonniers) 
calls after them, and just misses them with a shot from a sHng. 
Arrived at the castle gate, they find a vilain sitting at the left of the 
portal, and an attendant is just handing him an axe. He demands his 
" rights," and springs to his feet. 

" Hunbaus," fait il, " qui qui me hace, 
De cestui vel avoir mes drois." 

" Tall and black, ugly and hideous," he stands looking at the two 
knights and bars their way. Humbaut asks him to postpone the 
affair until they return, but he does not seem to hear. Gawain remarks 
that something must obviously be done before they can proceed: 
"What is this vilian's right that he demands ? " Humbaut replies: 
" He proposes to you Sijeu parti, which I can explain fully; but it is a 
savage bargain to accept, for both alternatives are bad. You can cut 
off his head with this axe first; he offers you his neck freely, on 
condition that immediately after you hold out yours to him. And 
he will remain close by, will hold the axe in his hands, and will strike 
but one blow. [Or, if you prefer, he will behead you first, and then 
submit to a stroke in return.^] Thisis the jeu parti. Take whichever 
alternative you please." "I shall ask nobody's advice," repHes 
Gawain with some humor, " for in such a choice I am quite capable of 
deciding for myself. Give me the axe first. I will make no mistake, 
since I am risking my life." [Some further conversation follows, which 
is fragmentarily reported in the manuscript. All that is certain is, 
that Gawain repeats his determination to strike first.] Then the 
vilain gives Gawain the axe and stretches out his neck, feehng quite 
safe as to the issue. Gawain, amazed at his cheerful demeanor, puts 
strength to the blow, and makes the vilairi's head fly more than ten 
paces away. The vilain open his two fists and thinks to go after it; 
but Gawain, detecting enchantment, catches him by the garments, 

^ The unique text is defective here. 



HUMBAUT 63 

and so the vilain is thwarted and the enchantment comes to naught, 
for he falls dead on the spot, and never after was there any jeu 
parti} 

Gawain and Humbaut pass into the courtyard. More than ten 
squires run up to take their horses. Discarding their shields, for 
greater ease, but retaining their swords, they enter the building, where 
they find a dwarf, the ugliest creature Gawain had ever seen, sitting 
by the door. He, like the others, is clamorous for his right. " What 
does this devil want ? " asks Gawain, and Humbaut explains that his 
privilege is to engage in four word-combats {quatre fois tender) with 
every strange knight. Gawain avers that, for his part, he never had 
any skill in railing, but the dwarf begins without further ceremony 
and exhibits considerable talent. " Verily," replies Gawain, " I will 
vie with him in such raihng as befits him," and he cleaves his head 
with his sword. Then Gawain and Humbaut enter the presence of 
the King of the Isles, and Gawain delivers Arthur's message, calling 
upon him to do homage and pay tribute, and summoning him to 
Arthur's court before New Year's day. The two knights then make 
good their escape. ^ 

The resemblance between Humbaut and La Mule sanz 
Frain in the Challenge is remarkably close until the very 
end, but the two conclusions are utterly at variance. 

The Challenge is a part of the machinery of an enchanted (or other- 
world) realm. The thing happens in the enchanted city to Gawain, 
who has gone thither on a quest under expert guidance. The chal- 
lenger is a vilain, tall, black, and hideous. He offers a jeu parti. 
Gawain protests that he cannot hesitate which alternative to accept. 
He beheads the vilain. 

Up to this point, the summary will serve for either Hum- 
haul or La Mule, so closely do the two agree. But here the 
author of Humbaut abandons the proper conclusion of the 
Challenge. Instead of submitting to the return-blow, 
Gawain causes the vilain' s death by preventing head and 
body from joining. 

^ The Challenge story occupies w. 1460-1539 of Humbaut (ed. Stiirzinger 
and Breuer, Dresden, 1914, Gesellschafl fiir romanische Literatur, XXXV) . 
^ Humbaut, w. 418-1764. 



64 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

This state of things is easily explained by supposing that 
the author of Humhaut borrowed the Challenge from La 
Mule, but changed the denouement to suit himself. One 
circumstance, however, must give us pause: the denoue- 
ment in Humhaut is good orthodox folk-lore. In fighting 
with any foe who has the faculty of recalling his head to 
his shoulders, alternative methods of procedure are well 
established: you must either destroy the head before it has 
time to go back, or keep head and trunk apart until death 
ensues. Both tricks are abundantly reported in folk-tales, 
and either is held to be creditable to a hero's skill and 
wisdom.^ 

Now it is true that Humhaut is a skimble-skamble sort of 
romance, but the first half, which narrates the mission of 
Gawain to the King of the Isles (w.i-1775), hangs together 
well enough, and conforms in the main to an established 
type of mdrchen : — An adventurer makes his way into the 
reahn of an other-world potentate (or an enchanter), where, 
coached or assisted by a wise companion (often a helpful 
animal), he surmounts the magic obstacles, thwarts or de- 
stroys his demonic opponents, and kills or subdues the ruler 
(or, at all events, comes off unscathed). In such a tale, a 
head-recovering monster is eminently in place among the 
terrors of the other-world menage, and a prodigy of that 
kind may well have stood in the main source of this portion 
of Humhaut. If so, he was certainly (as in Humhaut) a 
purely hostile figure, and was certainly thwarted and slain 
(as in Humhaut) by some trick of keeping head and trunk 
apart. This denouement, then, was not invented by the 
Humhaut poet. He simply retained it from his main source, 
though he modified the rest of the adventure by substituting 
a part of the Challenge story in a form closely resembling 

1 See examples, pp. 148 £f. 



HUMBAUT 65 

that in La Mule. This was a natural thing for him to do, 
since he certainly knew the Challenge, and must have been 
struck with the similarity in appearance and actions between 
its gigantic axeman and the head-recovering vilain in the 
tale that he was working up. He rejected the denouement of 
the Challenge for an obvious reason: it did not suit his plot 
to make the vilain friendly to Gawain. The attempts of the 
Humhaut poet to enrich his plot with features from the Chal- 
lenge result in a violation of good faith on the part of the 
matchless Gawain, who does not fulfil his compact with the 
axeman. But the author was not fussy about trifles, and 
probably thought nulla fides a satisfactory principle. 
Compare the treatment accorded to the raiHng dwarf. 

Where the author of Humhaut found the Challenge story 
cannot certainly be determined. Perhaps in La Mule, but 
quite as Hkely in O. In either case, he omitted the block, 
but retained the jeu parti. 

In the source from which Paien derived the main plot of 
La Mule sanz Frain, there was, we have seen reason to 
believe, an enchanter whose head returned to his shoulders 
whenever it was cut off. With this personage Gawain had 
to fight as a part of the process of reheving the city from 
spells. In the combat, he cut off the enchanter's head, and 
baffled the magic either by splitting it before it had time to 
return to the trunk or by keeping the two apart till the mar- 
row was cold; in either case, the enchanter was effectually 
killed. This trick was, of course,, quite justified, for there 
was no jeu parti, and no promise on Gawain's part to 
submit to decapitation in his turn. 

This incident of the enchanter, we conjectured, reminded 
Paien of the ChaUenge story, which he knew in version O, 
and he accordingly substituted that story at the appropriate 
place in La Mule. 



66 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

To the numerous examples which folk-tales, from India 
to North America, afford of this class of supernatural crea- 
tures with returning heads, and of heroes who bafHe them by 
a trick,! we are now able to add an Arthurian romance, the 
Humbaut. The importance of the testimony afforded by the 
Humbaut does not depend upon any particular view of the 
relation between this romance and La Mule. The thwarting 
trick is not derived by Humbaut from La Mule, for it is no 
part of the latter and cannot have stood in any version of it 
which the Humbaut poet knew. For the trick he was in- 
debted either to the main source from which he derived his 
story of the Embassy to the King of the Isles, or to his own 
general knowledge of popular fiction. On either of these 
alternative suppositions, his document gives evidence not 
only of the usability, but of the actual use, of this thwarting 
motif, along with the hostile creature with the returning 
head, in Arthurian romance, and thus increases the proba- 
bility that Paien found such an incident in the main source 
from which he drew the plot of La Mule. Thus far, and no 
farther, is the thwarting motif in the Humbaut of immediate 
significance for our investigation. But even so, its testimony 
is not unwelcome. 

The Anglo-Norman Romance of the Challenge (0) 

We may now venture to reconstruct version O,^ pre- 
sumably Anglo-Norman, and to point out in footnotes the 
relation of that version to its derivates, the Challenge in 

1 See pp. 45-47, 148 ff. 

2 The existence of a common source for the various French versions of 
the Challenge (or Beheading Game), including that preserved in the English 
Gawain and the Green Knight, was recognized by Gaston Paris (Histoire 
Litteraire, XXX, 72): " un poeme frangais episodique, qui avait pour sujet 
principal ce qui dans les autres textes ne forme qu'un incident au milieu 
d'autres." 



THE ANGLO-NORMAN CHALLENGE 67 

La Mule (M), in Perlesvaus (P), and in R — the common 
source from which the Livre de Caradoc (C) and the French 
Gawain and the Green Knight (G) derived the Challenge. 
This reconstruction, with the commentary, will serve as a 
recapitulation of our results up to this point. 

King Arthur ^ is holding high court (10) ^ at Carduel ^ 
one Pentecost season,* and knights and ladies have assem- 
bled in great numbers (10).^ The feast is ready, but he 
refuses to begin until some strange news comes or some ad- 
venture happens, for such is his custom (O).^ Suddenly 
there enters the hall (10) ^ a huge giant, ugly and black, with 
fierce eyes and bushy hair (10).^ He advances to the high 

^ Conchobar in I. 2 j signifies Irish {The Champion's Bargain). 

2 Emain Macha, the Ulster capital, in I. 

^ Time and place preserved in R, and hence in C and the French G; 
changed by the English author to New Year (Christmastide) and Camelot. 

^ The ladies come in later in I. The fact that it is a full court was dwelt 
on in O, and therefore in R (whence it is kept in C and G). In M the scene 
of the Challenge is transferred to the Enchanted Castle, to which Gawain is 
conducted by a guiding animal, and in P the scene is similarly shifted, to 
suit the author's purposes. Hence the opening incidents of O are dropped 
in M and P. The full court at Carduel at Pentecost time, which does occur 
at the beginning of M, is not there taken from O, but belongs to the main 
plot of La Mule (see p. 42), being a conventional starting point for many 
Arthurian romances. 

^ Preserved from O by R, and hence by C and G. This is a convention 
(see p. 5). 

^ Lost in M and P, of course, on account of the changed setting. Kept 
from by R (CG). 

^ Fully described in I and thence, though perhaps less grotesquely, in O. 
From O the gigantic and frightful traits are well preserved in M, but P 
abandons them, making the challenger a tall and handsome knight. R kept 
at least a part of the description from O, but dropped the ugliness and 
attired the challenger magnificently in green (green attire kept in C from R, 
but C dropped all grotesqueness and made him simply a very tall knight; 
G also kept the green attire, but doubtless retained more of the description 
from R than C did; the English author made the knight and horse both 
green, with green hair and mane: see p. 142). In R he wore a garland of 
flowers (kept in C; in G he carries a bob of holly). 



68 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 



1 



dais (0) ^ on horseback (0 P),^ but greets nobody in the 
hall (10).^ He carries a huge axe in one hand and an 
enormous block in the other (10).^ There is consternation 
among the knights (10).^ The stranger announces that he 
has come to challenge some knight to a game which he has 
never found anybody willing to play with him; here, how- 
ever, he hopes to meet with better success, because of the 
renown of the court, which he celebrates in a more or less 
formal speech (10).® Arthur assures him that he is not 
likely to fail of his request, and asks for particulars (10)7 
The stranger then offers Sijeu parti: '' I will cut off the head 
of one of your champions to-day, and he may cut off mine a 
year hence; or he may cut off my head now, and I shall have 
the right to cut off his in a year " (10).^ The champions all 

1 Kept in R (CG). 

2 Perhaps he walked in O (cf. M and P), and the riding came in with R 
(so in CG), which had greatly modified the clumsy grotesqueness of the 
visitant (well preserved in M from O) . However, a horse would be out of 
place in M and P, even if O had said that the stranger rode. 

' Kept from O by R (hence in G; C modified R, making the stranger 
greet Arthur " very politely "). 

* Axe retained from O in M and R and from R in G (changed in C to a 
long sword). Block seems to be stationary in M, but its huge size is implied 
by the retention of the neck-stretching. Size of block reduced to the ordi- 
nary in R, in which it is merely a log that happens to be l3dng in the hall 
(the same in C from R; block dropped altogether by G). 

^ Kept from O by R (and from R by G; dropped at his point by C in 
the process of condensation). Dropped, of course by M and P (change of 
setting). 

^ Very formal and elaborate in I; less so, no doubt, in O, but still identical 
with I in substance. Kept from O by R and hence found in G (though 
dropped by the condensing author of C). No place for it in M or P. 

' So, practically, in I, though in much greater detail than was preserved 
in O. Kept from O by R (and hence in G and, in condensed form, in C). 
No place for it in M or P. 

^ I has the jeu parti in effect; in O the stranger's proposal was probably 
called a. jeu parti and stated in alternatives. Jeu parti retained from O (both 
in name and terms) by M and (with the name, but some modification of 
detail) by P. R abandoned the jeu parti, and made the stranger offer his 



THE ANGLO— NORMAN CHALLENGE 69 

hesitate (10).^ Somebody remarks that he would be a fool 
who did not take the more favorable alternative in such a 
choice (0).2 The stranger taunts the court, declaring that 
its renown is lost because of cowardice; it by no means 
deserves the reputation it enjoys (10).^ Arthur, in shame 
and wrath, springs forward and grasps the axe, but Gawain 
begs the adventure and the king resigns it (0).^ 

The challenger lays his neck on the block and Gawain 
beheads him with a single blow (10).^ The challenger picks 
up his head (10) ^ and departs, carrying it with him, as well 

own head on condition of returning the blow a year hence if he survived 
(so, therefore, in C and G). The interval is one night (not a year) in I, 
but it was probably increased to a year by O (so in P from O). M agrees 
with I in exacting the return-blow overnight, but this is due to the setting 
of the Challenge in M, not to survival from O. At all events, the interval 
was a year in R. 

1 Kept from O by R (hence in CG). Lancelot shows reluctance in P 
(where, however, there is so much sophistication that the evidence is worth- 
less). In M Gawain of course has no chance to hang back. 

2 I contains some conversation with the challenger that suggested this 
remark (see p. 12, above). O probably gave it to Gawain. From O the 
remark is kept (as made by the person who accepts the challenge) in M and 
P. R omitted the jeu parti, but kept the remark in part, whence it came 
into C (though lost in G). 

^ Kept from O in R (hence in C and G) . 

^ Probably in O (for there are traits in I that may have suggested it), 
but preserved in G alone, and therefore perhaps first in R (lost in C). The 
traits in I that may have suggested the incident in O are Munremar's 
springing forward and grasping the axe (which is of no great consequence) 
and the formal exemption of King Conchobar by the challenger (which 
seems significant). At all events, Gawain was certainly the hero who 
accepted the Challenge in O, and hence in M (P transfers it to Lancelot) 
and R (whence G kept the hero, though C substituted Caradoc). 

^ Kept from O (with block) in M (a trace, perhaps, in P, where the 
challenger " stretches out his neck as much as he can," though the block is 
lost). Block kept in R (see p. 70, note 6, below). 
(CG), and holds out his neck (CG). 

^ Kept from by M (but not by P, in which the challenger is really 
killed) and by R (CG). R added the detail of picking up the head by the 
hair (CG). 



JO GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

as the block and axe (10).^ Before he leaves the hall, the 
challenger's head speaks, promising that he will come back 
at the year's end and warning Gawain to be ready for 
him (O ?).2 

Gawain spends the year in knight-errantry (O).^ When 
the day comes round, a great court assembles to see Gawain 
fulfil his compact (0, cf. I).^ All are sorrowful for Gawain 
(10).^ The giant enters, as before, with axe and block 
(10),^ his head standing safe and sound on his shoulders 
(10).^ ^' Where are you, Gawain?" he cries out (10).^ 
" Come forward and offer me your head as I offered mine to 
you! " (0).9 ''Here am I!" repHes Gawain {10)}' The 

1 Kept from O by M, substantially (though the block seems to have been 
stationary in M), but modified in P (where, however, the body and the 
head disappear mysteriously). For block in R see p. 68, note 4. In R, as 
in 10, the challenger certainly left the hall without replacing his head on 
his shoulders' (so G; in C he puts it back before he goes). 

2 Perhaps first in R (hence in G, and with a slight change, in C). Not in 
M (and of course not in P). 

3 Kept from O by P (with change of hero; dropped of course in M). 
Kept also from O by R (hence in C, omitted in G). 

^ Kept from O in R (hence in C, and, with the necessary change, in G). 

5 Kept from O in R (hence in CG). 

^ Axe kept from O in M and R, and from R in G (changed to a long sword 
in C). Block seems to be stationary in M, but its huge size is implied in the 
retention of neck-stretching. Size reduced in R, in which it is a log that 
chances to be in the hall (the same in C from R; block dropped altogether 
inG). 

^ Kept from O in M and P (though in P it is the challenger's brother), 
also in R (CG). 

^ Kept from O by R (hence in C) . Lost in M (from O) but retained (in a 
manner) by P (in the lamentation of the ladies for the supposed faithlessness 
of Lancelot). 

^ Kept from O by M (in effect) and P (with changes). Kept fully by R 
(hence in CG). 

^° Kept from O by M (with change) but dropped in P. Kept from O by 
R (hence in C, but modified by change of setting in G, in which Gawain 
announces his presence without being called for) . 



I 



THE ANGLO-NORMAN CHALLENGE 71 

challenger commends him for keeping his word (10). ^ Then 
Gawain lays his neck on the block, (10) ,2 but it is too wide 
for him, and the challenger, after preparing to strike (or 
making a feint or half -stroke), bids him stretch his neck 
that he may hit him properly (10).^ Gawain tries to obey, 
and another refusal or feint or half-stroke follows; but the 
challenger still bids him stretch his neck to fit the block 
(I0)> '' This is the best I can do," replies Gawain (O),^ 
making another effort (10).^ He upbraids the challenger 
for tormenting him (10) j*^ calls him coward (0),^ and urges 
him to strike without more delay (10).^ Thus there are two 
feints or half-strokes or refusals before the challenger 
actually hits Gawain (10). ^^ The third time the challenger 
raises the axe, but brings it down on Gawain's neck in a 

1 Kept from O (with changes) in P, but dropped by M. Also kept by R 
(hence in G, but lost by condensation in C). 

2 Kept from O in M (dropped in P, in which he kneels and holds out his 
head); kept from O by R (hence in C, dropped in G). 

3 Condensed from O in M; dropped in R (hence lacking in (CG). In R 
the failure to strike was due to Arthur's interrupting. In P (from O) there 
may be a trace of the neck-stretching. 

* Condensed from O in M; dropped in P; also dropped in R (hence 
lacking in CG). In R the failure to strike the second time was due to inter- 
ruption by the queen (kept in C; changed in G). 

^ Kept from O in M; lost elsewhere. This speech is not in I, but I con- 
tams a vivid account (which might well suggest it) of the superhuman efforts 
of Cuchulinn. 

^ Condensed from O in M (dropped in P, in which there is only one blow, 
which Lancelot dodges; the knight is about to strike a second time, but 
throws down the axe at the request of his amie). Dropped in R (hence 
wanting in CG). 

' Kept from O by R (though lost by condensation in M). Kept from R 
by G and C. 

8 Kept from by R (CG); or perhaps first in R. 

9 Kept from O by M (not by P) and R (CG). 

^0 Feints or half -strokes lost in M by condensation (but traces left) ; one 
wasted stroke in P (Lancelot dodges). Two interruptions (by king and 
queen) and one harmless blow in R (kept in C; changed in G). 



72 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

harmless blow, back uppermost (10).^ The challenger then 
bids Gawain rise (10) ,2 and hails him as the best of knights 
for his valor and loyalty (10) .^ 

The matter of the feints or half-strokes is not quite easy to 
make out. In The Champion's Bargain, the challenger 
twice declines to smite on the ground that Cuchuhnn's neck 
does not fit the huge block, and then, when the hero has 
stretched himself superhumanly, strikes one harmless blow 
with the back of the axe. So the incident probably stood in 
O, with the huge block and the neck-stretching (though not 
so grotesquely described). M drew from O, but condensed 
the narrative, so that we cannot make out two feints (or 
refusals to strike), but only one, indicated, after Gawain has 
laid his neck on the block, by the vilain's saying " Lesse col 
venir a plente " (v. 623). Gawain repHes: " This is all the 
neck I have," and urges the vilain to strike if he is going to 
strike. Then the vilain raises his axe, but does not touch 
him with it, because of the knight's loyalty. After all, M is 
surprisingly close to I, merely reducing two preliminary 
refusals and requests to stretch the neck to one (by a tele- 
scoping process), and changing the final blow in a slight 
detail (the vilain refrains from touching Gawain with the 
axe, instead of hitting him with the back of it) . We may feel 
tolerably safe, then, as to our conjectural reconstruction of 
O. P (which drew from O) handled its material with great 
freedom throughout. The author found the block and the 

^ So, at all events, in I. Probably retained in O (but not kept in plain 
terms in M, and much changed in P). R, too, doubtless kept the incident in 
this shape (hence the flat of the sword in C; in G, Gawain is slightly cut by 
the third blow, but that is a special change due to a new motif). 

2 Kept from O (though dropped in MP) by R (whence it is retained by C; 
in G, Gawain springs up and away after the third stroke, declaring that he 
has fulfilled the covenant). 

3 Kept from O (in effect) in MP and (fully) in R (whence it appears in 
G and, in part, in C). 



THE ANGLO-NORMAN CHALLENGE 73 

neck-stretching too rude for his taste; he discarded the 
block altogether, retaining, however, a trace of the stretch- 
ing in the sentence, *' si se met a jenoillons et estant le 
col " (I, 233) ; compare the place where the challenger sub- 
mits to the blow, " atant s'ajenouille li chevaHers et estant 
le col au plus qu'il pent " (I, 104). Having abandoned the 
short neck as a reason for declining, the author of P never- 
theless wished to keep one feint (or declined stroke), and he 
accordingly accounted for it, very naturally, by making 
Lancelot dodge, so that the axe missed him. Then, of 
course, the axeman protested, contrasting Lancelot's con- 
duct with that of the knight whom he had beheaded, and 
calling upon him to hold his head still. The final stroke is 
then prepared for, but as the axeman is in act to strike, he 
is adjured to desist by his amie, and throws down the weapon. 
The author of P, then, departs from O considerably, but in a 
perfectly intelligible way, and from motives easy to grasp. 
His changes are due merely to his own preference, and in 
no way invaUdate our reconstruction of on the basis of 
I and M. 

When we come to R, we naturally expect the retention 
(from 0) of two declined or unexecuted strokes preceding a 
harmless blow with the back of the axe. R discarded the 
huge size of the block, and it therefore could not explain 
these by shortness of neck. C gives us some information as 
to how R actually accounted for them — by having Arthur 
interrupt and try to bribe the challenger the first time, and 
Guinevere repeat the interruption when the challenger is 
about to strike the second time (she offers him his choice of 
amies). This clever substitution for the neck-stretching 
doubtless stood in R. It can be made out with suj6&cient 
clearness in our present text of the Livre de Caradoc. After 
the first interruption, Caradoc upbraids the challenger and 



74 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

exhorts him to strike in language similar to I, and furnishing 
additional support to our reconstruction of O. When the 
author of the French Gawain combined the Temptation 
with the Challenge and shifted the scene of the return-blow 
by this combination to the challenger's own abode, he had 
to give up the explanation of R for the two harmless or 
declined blows, since Arthur and Guinevere were not pre- 
sent. He therefore made Gawain " shrink a Httle with his 
shoulders " the first time, and represented the second blow 
(or feint) as a necessary result of this shrinking. Since 
Gawain holds still the second time, the Green Knight is 
ready to proceed, and strikes a real blow the third time, 
cutting his neck slightly. This last slight injury and the two 
feints are then explained by Bernlak on moral grounds 
(with reference to Gawain's fidelity to his agreement to 
exchange winnings) in a way that was impossible in I, 0, or 
R, — that could not come into the tale, indeed, until the 
Temptation was combined with the Challenge. There is a 
coincidence between G and P — the dodging or shrinking 
and the reproof that follows, but these are mere coinci- 
dences, and not to be explained as retentions from a com- 
mon source. The exhortation to the axeman to strike 
quickly and not torment his victim (which stood in I, and 
was kept by O, and from O by R) was quite available, and 
the author of Gawain and the Green Knight kept it (as did C). 

Recapitulation 

We may now sum up the results of our study of the 
Challenge. 

Of the two versions of the Challenge contained in the 
Irish Fled Bricrend, one (the Uath version) had no effect on 
French literature, and is of interest only for the earlier 
history of the tale. The other {The Champion's Bargain), 



RECAPITULATION 75 

a highly developed literary version, passed into French and 
was worked up in an episodical romance of Gawain (O), 
probably composed in England in the twelfth century in the 
Anglo-Norman dialect. O is lost, but we may feel sure that 
its plot was confined to the story of the Challenge, and that 
it followed the Irish with reasonable fidehty, retaining (for 
example) the grotesque features of the block and the neck- 
stretching. From O the Challenge was taken indepen- 
dently (i) into the plot of another Gawain romance, La 
Mule sanz Frain, in a condensed form, (2) with many altera- 
tions into the prose Perlesvaus, in which the adventure was 
transferred from Gawain to Lancelot, and (3) apparently 
into the Humbaut, in which it appears in a singular shape. 
About 1 200 or a Httle earlier, O was revised or rewritten by 
some Frenchman, probably in a dialect of Continental 
French. This reworking (which we call R) was more 
courtly and polished than O, but did not depart from it in 
any essential feature, remaining an episodical romance of 
Gawain with its plot confined to the Challenge. Its chief 
single difference from O consisted in the abandonment of the 
byplay with the block and the neck-stretching, for which 
the author substituted courtly interruptions by the king and 
queen. From R the Challenge was inserted, with slight 
modifications but with a change of hero, into the story of 
Caradoc, and was thus a part of the Livre de Caradoc when 
that romance was put into the first continuation of Chre- 
tien's Perceval li Gallois. Another French poet combined 
the Challenge as told by R with an entirely different tale of 
Gawain (the Temptation), and thus constructed a highly 
ingenious plot in honor of that hero. His work is preserved 
to us in an EngUsh version, our Gawain and the Green Knight. 
This, however, is in no sense a translation, but rather a 
highly original retelling of the combined story, in a new 



76 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

style and with many new details of description and the like. 
In mere plot, however, it is improbable that the English 
poet departed much from his immediate source, for most of 
the variations from R that we find in Gawain and the Green 
Knight are such as would inevitably result from the com- 
bination of the Challenge with the Temptation. 

La Mule sanz Frain, Perlesvaus, and the Livre de Caradoc 
all come very early in the thirteenth century. It is safe, 
therefore, to refer the French poem (doubtless Anglo- 
Norman) to the twelfth century and the French R to 
about 1 200. As for the French Gawain and the Green 
Knight, its earher limit is the date of R, its later limit the 
date of the English version. We may reasonably refer it, 
therefore, to about 1250. 



III. THE TEMPTATION 

As the Temptation appears in the English poem, it is a trial 
of Gawain's fidehty to his host and of his loyalty to the 
chivalric ideal of '' truth." Primarily, however, the Temp- 
tation is a story of quite a different character — not ethical 
at all, but connected with a long chain of folk-lore. For we 
may unhesitatingly recognize its central incident as one of 
those tests or proofs to which supernatural beings are wont 
to subject mortals who venture into their other-world 
domain. Such tests are of many kinds, are inspired by all 
sorts of motives, and serve the most various purposes in 
story-telling. Their object may be to destroy the hero who 
has intruded into the supernatural realm or to eject him 
from it. On the other hand, they may be merely terms to be 
met — conditions precedent to the hero's entering upon the 
life of the Other World and enjoying the love of the fee or 
goddess. Sometimes they are used to deter or exclude the 



THE TEMPTATION "JJ 

unworthy and ensure the selection of the matchless hero. 
Not infrequently they result from an enchanter's spell, and 
their fulfilment reverses the charm and puts an end to 
his usurpation, restoring the land to its legitimate ruler 
and the bespelled inhabitants to their normal shape or 
condition.^ 

The actual origin of any particular detail among these 
multifarious bits in the kaleidoscope of folk-lore and 
romance may be difficult, or even impossible, to discover. 
An incident springing from a definite custom, or from a 
specific and consistent article of popular belief, may drift far 
away from its primary milieu in creed or code, and attach 
itself now to one story now to another, in total oblivion of 
its first use or its initial purport. Supernatural creatures of 
the most various kinds exchange roles with bewildering non- 
chalance, or are reduced to the status of robbers, knights, 
ladies, or other classes of ordinary mortals. The Other 
World may appear as an island, or a castle, or a cave, or an 
orchard, or a fair meadow, or even as the Christian hell. 
New varieties of mdrchen — developing from such shifts, 
misunderstandings, and substitutions, or from contami- 
nation — become established as independent traditional 
types, and not only propagate their kind, but are ever ready 
to slide into fresh combinations. It was neglect of facts like 
these that vitiated the results, and has finally discredited 
the science, of the once-flourishing school of comparative 
mythologists. 

In investigating the Temptation, then, our task is not to 
ascertain its absolutely primal meaning — to discover, in 
short, the purpose of the man who first devised, imagined, 
or practised such a thing in the backward and abysm of 
time. This primal meaning may or may not emerge from 
1 See pp. 237 ff. 



78 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

our study. That is a matter of small concern. What we 
shall attempt is much simpler and much more hopeful of 
accomphshment. We have to ask ourselves in what shape, 
and in what context, and with what meaning, the Temptation 
story came into the hands of the clever Frenchman who amalga- 
mated it with the Challenge to make the plot of Gawain and the 
Green Knight. 

For this inquiry we have plenty of documents. Let us 
note at the outset what to exclude. First, our story of the 
Temptation has nothing whatever to do with the cycle of 
tales known, from its most distinguished example, as Poti- 
phar's Wife — not the remotest connection with the motif 
of Phaedra and Hippolytus. This proposition is self-evident. 
In our story, the lady is not in love with the hero whom she 
wooes, and has no intention to be false to her lord. Conse- 
quently she takes no offence at the hero's ofhshness and 
brings no false accusation against him. Everything is lack- 
ing that makes the story of Potiphar's Wife what it is. 
Secondly, the Temptation in our sense must be sharply dis- 
tinguished from that class of stories in which a visiting hero 
receives the favors of his host's wife (or daughter) or of the 
lady paramount of a castle. In this class, there is no temp- 
tation in any sense : we have simply an epic bonne fortune, 
which the hero accepts without demur. Finally, our Temp- 
tation story should not be equated with that type of myth 
or marchen in which d^fee or goddess entices her chosen hero 
to her other-world abode, eager for his love, but impelled to 
test his worthiness before she accepts it. It is, to be sure, 
quite possible that one or more of these three types or situa- 
tions may have shared in the genesis of our Temptation 
story, or may have influenced its history. That is a point 
which we shall consider in due season. Here we are con- 
cerned, not with the possible origins or formative elements 



THE TEMPTATION 79 

of the Temptation or its dramatis personae, but with the tale 
itself, in its habit as it lived, — with the individual story, 
fully formed, and characterized by its own peculiar plot. 
For in this shape it had a definite existence before it came 
into the possession of the Frenchman who combined it with 
the Challenge. 

We observe, then, one differentiating feature which dis- 
tinguishes our story from all other tales in which a woman 
wooes a man, — and that is, the part that is played by the 
husband. In our Temptation, the wife loves her husband 
alone, and it is in obedience to his instructions that she 
tempts the hero. Our Temptation, as we have already 
remarked, is a test-story, and the test is applied by the 
husband, the lady serving merely as his agent or instrument. 
And among the great variety of test-stories that crowd the 
collections of oral Hterature, the central incident of our 
Temptation has a definite place: it belongs to the large and 
varied category of conditions for disenchantment. 

In a well-known kind of popular tale, a stranger is enter- 
tained at the house (or castle) of a magician or supernatural 
being, where he can escape death or disgrace only on certain 
rigidly pre-ordained terms, which are the same for all 
comers. The test may be complicated, it may be simple, 
but it is always difficult. Many have failed to fulfil it, — in 
fact, all men have failed until such time as the hero of the 
story is subjected to the trial. The very fact that the tale 
is told at all presupposes failure on the part of every one who 
has hitherto made the attempt. 

Sometimes the tests are well-known, and the adventurer 
treads wittingly in the path of scores of unsuccessful pre- 
decessors. Examples of this, from the folk-lore of ancient 
and modern times and of all peoples, will occur, in abundant 
measure, to every reader. In a special class of these stories, 



I I 



8o GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

however, the interest is heightened by a peculiar and in- 
genious provision of fate which seems to assure the failure of 
the quester : he does not know in what the tests consist. There 
is a pre-arranged law which he must follow, — either doing 
something in particular or refraining from doing something, 
— or take the consequences; but the law is so illogical,, 
so capricious, that the chances are overwhelmingly against 
his conforming to it. Or perhaps the test is simple and 
obvious enough, so that, when once it has been fulfilled, 
everybody wonders that it had so long defied solution. In 
this case, the difficulty consists in the fact that the adven- 
turer is not only ignorant of what he must do, but that he 
does not know there is any test at all. In this category, doubt- 
less, belongs the famous Grail-question, which Gawain 
neglected to ask and which Perceval did not think of till he 
had once missed his opportunity. 

The multiplicity of these tests needs no demonstration to 
any one who has the slightest familiarity with " popular " 
fiction. That the romances of the Round Table abound in 
similar incidents is likewise well known. Such instances are 
of course usually attired in the conventional chivalric cos- 
tume, but their true nature is easily discernible. One of the 
accretions which they have received from chivalric fiction is 
noteworthy and pertinent here: it is often fated that only 
the best knight in the world shall ever succeed in meeting the 
exigency. This feature could find no place in an isolated 
story or mdrchen, the hero of which is anonymous, or has a 
commonplace name, or at all events is no more associated in 
the teller's mind with other mdrchen heroes than if the tale 
which is being told at the moment were the only one in the 
world, such is the charmingly improvident, hand-to-mouth 
way of the muse of folk-lore. When, however, many stories 
have been associated together and brought into connection 



THE TEMPTATION 8 1 

with a brotherhood of knights, and when it is realized that 
anybody and everybody may essay the test and that there 
are good knights and bad, the element of mere chance is 
deliberately eliminated and the proviso that only the best 
shall have grace for the trial — be it simple or compHcated 
— is imposed as a reasonable restriction. 

The fulfilment of the trial brings safety or good fortune to 
the adventurer. What does it bring to the enchanter or 
supernatural being who operates it ? This question must 
be answered in two ways, which, though at first they appear 
inconsistent, are by no means out of harmony, (i) The 
fulfilment of the test puts an end to it forever. The riddle of 
the Sphinx is guessed, and no man need worry over it in the 
future. What was to be done, was to be done once, and that 
once is once for all. The enchanter or supernatural being, 
then, who is probably conceived as malevolent, or at any 
rate as dangerous and disagreeable, loses all his power and 
disappears, or perhaps he is killed and troubles men no more. 
This is no doubt the primitive conception, so far as such an 
adjective may be used in considerations of this nature. But 
(2) another conception easily develops: the operators of the 
test are not properly malevolent beings; they are, on the 
contrary, themselves the victims of enchantment. They 
have been bewitched or put under spells, from which they 
can be released only by the successful fulfilment of the tests, 
as described above. Under these circumstances the inhabi- 
tants of the enchanted castle (if castle it be), though in fact 
they are friendly to the guest, for in him they recognize a 
possible deliverer, are constrained by the terms of the spell 
to conduct themselves as if their main purpose were to 
entrap him. If he succeeds, however, in coming through in 
safety, they rejoice with him, for with his success comes their 
release. In this form of the story the bespelled persons (or 



82 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

some of them) often wear a monstrous or terrible guise, and 
disenchantment transforms them to their human shape. 

In a weakened or disguised form of a test-story of this 
kind, the fact that the dwelling is enchanted or that the 
owner of it is a supernatural being (originally malevolent) is 
lost sight of, and we have simply " the custom of the castle." 
Whoever lodges here must do so and so, or he is slain or 
ejected with contumely. In nearly every case of this sort 
we may recognize the old kind of story, though the writer at 
the moment may have had no idea that he was dealing with 
a supernatural being. The host acts as he acts — absurdly 
or otherwise — because it is his '' custom," and a reason for 
the custom need not be asked any more than in the case of 
a thousand other customs which people observe without 
understanding them or even realizing that they need an 
explanation. Sometimes it is merely the humor of the 
castellan to do as he does, and, when he is overcome (his test 
being met), he is persuaded, or forced, to forego his pecuHar 
institution. In this last form the whole situation was 
probably not distinguished by the romancers themselves 
from the ordinary case in which a knight keeps a ford against 
all comers or refuses hospitality to all who do not overcome 
him in a joust. That all such incidents go back to definite 
tales of supernatural beings it would be folly to maintain. 
That many do, and that the genre was estabhshed under 
such influence, it would be equally venturesome to deny. 

One very special form of test, — which may work either 
for the safety of the adventurer merely or at the same time 
for the disenchantment of the person who imposes the task, 
— takes shape in an odd kind of story, which must have 
been a great favorite in the middle ages — that in which an 
imperious host maltreats or kills all guests who demur to his 
orders, however curious, absurd, or difficult these may be. 



IDER 83 

In the full extremity of this test, the guest does not know 
that unquestioning obedience to his savage and whimsical 
host is the sole means of safety. Hence it is only by happy 
chance, or by virtue of instinctive courtesy, that the test is 
gone through with. The host may be under spells, and in 
that case the story becomes a tale of disenchantment. 

In Arthurian romance these various test-stories are some- 
times utilized in a peculiar but very natural way. As the 
household of King Arthur is recruited from hostile knights 
who have been overcome by his paladins, so it occasionally 
happens that knights released from an enchantment that 
has given them a churl's form and made them disagreeable 
and terrible, join the company of the Round Table. 

The appHcation of these remarks to the Temptation in 
Gawain and the Green Knight remains to be made. We may 
begin by considering the Ider. 

Ider 

The Old French romance of Ider (of the first half of the 
thirteenth century) contains a curious episode, the striking 
parallelism of which to the Temptation in Gawain and the 
Green Knight needs no emphasis. 

Ider is in search of somebody to give him arms and dub him knight. 
He falls in with a king named Ivenant, who is ready to meet his wishes 
under one condition: — " Go to my castle and wait for me in the hall. 
My wife will offer you her love, though in fact she cares for me alone. 
She is irresistible; but if you can withstand her wiles, my arms and 
armor shaU be yours. If you yield, your head is to be shorn like a 
fool's {en crois)." Ider accepts the bargain, confident that his love 
for his own amie, Guenloie, will protect him from the lady's blandish- 
ments. He enters the hall, where he finds many knights and squires 
playing chess and other games, and, fatigued as he is, he falls asleep 
on a couch (fatidestue) . The queen, who is in her chamber, learns of 
his arrival from one of her maidens. She descends to the hall im- 
mediately, wakes Ider, and wooes him ardently. Harsh words and 



84 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

threats not sufficing to discourage her, Ider gives her a kick " al 
ventre," which causes her to fall over backward. " I cannot blame 
him," remarks the author, " for he could not defend himself [other- 
wise]." All the company hear the words and see the blow. The 
incident amuses and dehghts them vastly, for they are familiar with 
the custom of the castle. 

Cil qui sent as gieus en la sale 
Voient le cop e les diz cent; 
Mult s'en rient, mult s'en esjoent, 
Bien sevent la costume tute. 

The queen rises from the floor and returns to her chamber, exacting 
from Ider a promise to grant her another interview before he receives 
Ivenant's arms. King Ivenant arrives and learns from one of his 
retainers that Ider has resisted the queen. The queen would have 
kissed her husband, but he calls her harlot, and gives her a kick which 
knocks her down again. Ivenant then offers his arms to Ider, remark- 
ing that he has previously made the same bargain with a thousand 
men [all of whom, it is clear, have found the test beyond their strength]. 
Ider remembers his promise to talk with the queen again before taking 
the arms; but he is careful to speak at the chamber door, without 
entering and without seeing the lady, and loud enough for the king 
to hear. His words are harsh, even insulting: 

" Je ne vos voi, mes je vos oi, 
Si ne vos quier veer ja mes, 
Mes pur fole dame vos les." 

The king laughs when he hears it.^ He then gives Ider arms and the 
accolade. The young knight takes his leave and rides away.^ 

Here we have the Temptation, deprived of all supernatu- 
ral setting and reduced to a mere " custom." The savagery 
of manners and the brutal frankness of the whole adventure 
are especially noteworthy as showing how primitive the 
romance is at this point. In fitting the incident into the 
history of Ider, certain changes have no doubt been made. 

1 It looks as if the author of Ider had not quite grasped the significance 
of the incident he utilizes. Certainly he leaves us surprised at the brutality 
of Ivenant toward his wife. 

2 Ider, ed. Gelzer, Dresden, 1913, vv. 185-512. 



THE CARL OF CARLISLE 85 

Thus the young knight's confidence that his love for Guen- 
loie will protect him against the queen's advances is a 
manifest modification. So is Ivenant's disclosure of the 
nature of the test. But it is easy to detach the incident from 
all accretions, and to recognize therein the resistance (for 
whatever reason) to the powerful charms of a lady as the 
test imposed — without his knowledge — on a wandering 
adventurer. Nobody has stood the test before, but he is 
successful. It seems quite clear that his exploits bring about 
the discontinuance of the " custom." Whether disen- 
chantment followed, we cannot say, and need not con- 
jecture. Only the central incident is preserved, but that has 
fortunately come down to us in a marvellously primitive 
shape. It is rude enough to form part of the Ulster heroic 
cycle, and it is all the better evidence on that account. 

The Carl of Carlisle 

A second instance of the Temptation, in which the super- 
natural setting is fully preserved, and which illustrates 
almost everything that has been preliminarily said about 
these matters, is found in the extraordinary Middle English 
romance of The Carl of Carlisle. This piece is preserved in 
the Porkington MS. (about 1450-60) and Bishop Percy's 
Folio MS. (about 1650). Comparison of the Porkington 
version with that in the Percy FoHo shows that we have to 
do with two texts of a single English poem, not with two 
independent compositions on a similar theme or two inde- 
pendent renderings of a common original. The identity of 
phraseology is sufficient to prove this beyond a shadow of 
doubt. The Porkington text is in tail-rhyme stanzas, the 
Percy text is in short couplets. Clearly one is a redaction of 
the other. 



86 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

It is usually held that the Percy version is a ballad made 
out of the Porkington version by rejecting the rimes couees. 
But the assumption is not justified. The Percy version is 
not a ballad, though Madden prints it in quasi-ballad 
stanzas. It is simply a romance in short couplets, and is not 
stanzaic. The Porkington MS. is about two hundred years 
older than the Percy Folio, but that is no reason for in- 
ferring that the version which it contains is later than the 
Porkington version. Nor is there any antecedent probabil- 
ity that a romance in rime couee is older than a romance in 
short couplets: on the contrary, couplets were in earlier use 
in such poems. Indeed, the Percy MS. itself preserves the 
couplet- version of Marie's Lai de Lanval which was utiHzed 
by Thomas Chestre as the basis of his tail-rhyme romance of 
Launfal. It was long held that Chestre's stanzaic romance 
(which happens to be preserved in an older MS.) was the 
original of the Launfal in short couplets, but this view is 
now given up. The presumption, then, is that the Percy 
version of the Carl of Carlisle is the older. At all events, the 
Percy version preserves an important part of the romance 
which the text afforded by the Porkington MS. has lost.^ 
In most regards, however, the Porkington MS. furnishes a 
better text. 

The Carl of Carlisle was probably translated or adapted 
from some French poem. The extant French version of a 
similar story, however, which forms a part of the Chevalier 
a VEpee, is certainly not the source of the English romance. 
The two go back to a common source, which the English 
Carl represents much more faithfully than the French. The 
brutalities of the EngHsh poem must not Ughtty be regarded 
as debasements. They should be compared with the tone of 
the incident just quoted from Ider. A summary of the 

^ See pp. 88-89, 301-302. 



THE CARL OF CARLISLE 87 

English romance will show how significant it is in the present 
investigation. I follow the Porkington text, except as 
indicated, usually disregarding trivial variations of the 
Percy MS. 

King Arthur is sojourning at Cardiff [the Percy MS. says simply in 
Wales] with many knights (including Sir Raynbrown, " the knight of 
arms green ") } One day, in the course of a hunt, Sir Gawain, Sir Kay, 
and Bishop Baldwin follow a reindeer (red deer, Percy) into a wide 
forest. A thick mist rises, and they give up all hope of rejoining their 
companions that night. The Bishop knows of a possible harborage. 
There is a " Carl in a castle " near-by; he is called the Carl of CarHsle. 
But no one ever put up with him without being beaten, and, if he 
got off with his life, he had only God's grace to thank. Kay blusters: 
he should like to visit the Carl ; they wiU beat him if he is not com- 
plaisant. Gawain, on the contrary, says he will try what fair speech 
can accompHsh. They ride to the Carl's gate, and Gawain sends in 
the porter with a courteous request for lodging. The porter warns 
them that they will be sorry for their coming, as he is, — his lord is 
an evil man. 

The three guests are promptly admitted, and enter the hall, while 
their steeds are taken to the stable. The Carl is described as a giant, 
dreadful to see, with wide mouth, gray beard, long locks, and a 
hooked nose. It is a large span between his eyebrows and two (three, 
Percy) tailor's yards across his shoulders; he is nine yards (fifty 
cubits, Percy) in height. Four strange " whelps " are lying by the 
fire, — a wild bull, a felon boar, a lion, and a huge bear. They are 
about to attack the guests, but creep under the table at a word from 
their master. The Carl receives his guests politely enough, and offers 
them wine out of a nine-gallon bowl. 

Baldwin, Kay, and Gawain, one after another, go out to look after 
their horses. Baldwin and Kay, finding that a Httle foal of the Carl's 
is feeding by the side of their palfreys, turn him out, with contumely, 
and are rewarded by the Carl with a tremendous buffet. Gawain 
sees the foal standing in the rain, puts him in, and covers him with his 
own green mantle. The Carl thanks him for his courtesy. 

Supper is ready by this time, and seats are assigned to the Bishop 
and Sir Kay. The Carl's wife has a place opposite Kay at the table. 

^ The Percy text does not say that the " Knight of armes green " is 
present, but mentions him (with no personal name) in connection with his 
father Sir Ironside. 



88 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

She is very lovely and gloriously arrayed. " Alas," thinks Kay, " that 
so fair a lady should be matched with so foul a wight! " The Carl 
reads his thought and rebukes him. Gawain is still standing in the 
hall jfloor, not having been bidden to sit. The Carl tells him to dart 
a spear at him, and to hit him " even in the face " if he can. The 
spear is well aimed, but the Carl dodges. He then gives Gawain a 
place at table opposite his wife, with whom the knight at once falls so 
deeply in love that he can neither eat nor drink. Observing his 
abstraction, the Carl tells him to drink his wine — the lady is not for 
him. The Carl's daughter, a very beautiful girl, richly attired, then 
appears; she harps and sings. Then the Bishop and Sir Kay are 
conducted to their chamber. But Gawain is led to the Carl's own 
chamber, and bidden by the Carl to go to bed to his wife, take her in 
his arms, and kiss her [thrice, Percy]. Gawain obeys, and when 
the situation becomes critical, the Carl interferes, but, in reward for 
the knight's obedience, lodges him with his daughter, to their mutual 
satisfaction. 

Next morning ^ the Carl takes Gawain to a room in which there 
are the bones of fifteen hundred men (ten cartloads of bones, Pork- 
ington) and many a bloody sark. " All these," says the Carl, " I and 
my whelps have slain." After dinner the Carl conducts Gawain to 
an armory and, selecting a sword, commands Gawain to smite off his 
head. Gawain is reluctant, but his host threatens to smite off his 
if he decHnes, and the deed is done. Instantly the Carl " stands up, 
a man of the height of Sir Gawain " [no longer a monstrous giant]. 
He thanks Gawain for delivering him from the witchcraft under which 
he has suffered so long. Forty years ago he was thus transformed by 
necromancy, and since that time he and his whelps have slain every 
guest who did not do his bidding. Gawain is the first who has stood 
this test, and now the evil custom is abolished. " God reward you, 
for all my bale is brought to bhss! " The three guests are dismissed 
with rich presents, Gawain taking with him the Carl's daughter, to 
whom he has been married by the good bishop. Next day Arthur 
dines with the transformed Carl, and makes him a knight of the 
Round Table, estabhshing him as lord of Carhsle. 

For the conclusion of the romance I have based the 
summary on the Per^y MS., which is clearly right in almost 
every detail. The Porkington text omits the disenchant- 
ment by decapitation. The Carl, after inviting his guests 

1 For the rest of the story the Percy MS. is followed. 



V J 



LE CHEVALIER A L'fiPEE 89 

to dinner, tells Gawain that for twenty years ^ no man has 
lodged with him without being slain. The condition of the 
exemption was that his guests should do his bidding in every 
particular, and Gawain is the first who has stood the test. 
"Now," says the Carl, ''my bale is brought to bliss," and he 
prays God to reward his deliverer. Then he shows Gawain 
the ghastly remains of the victims, and promises to forsake 
his wicked customs, and to practise true hospitahty here- 
after for Gawain' s sake. Dinner follows. Then the guests 
depart with splendid presents, Gawain taking the daughter 
with him. Next day King Arthur and his knights dine with 
the Carl and are nobly entertained. Arthur dubs the Carl 
knight, makes him one of the fellowship of the Round Table, 
and grants him the country of Carlisle as a fief. Gawain 
weds the daughter, and there is a fortnight's festival. 

Not only is there no beheading in the Porkington text, 
but the Carl says nothing about being under a spell. How- 
ever, the situation is clear enough without express words, 
and his intense feeUng of reHef at being able to abandon his 
evil ways is proof enough that he had been acting under 
magic compulsion. There is also not a word about the Carl's 
losing his monstrous shape, though that is clearly a sine qua 
non for his being made a knight of the Round Table — an 
incident that the Porkington text retains. 

Le Chevalier a l'Epee 

The Chevalier a VEpee has not preserved the story so well 
as the EngHsh romance (whether in the Percy or the Pork- 
ington version), and has appended an incident which origi- 
nally had nothing to do with the matter. A summary of the 
French poem will make its relation to the Carl of Carlisle so 
clear that further discussion is hardly necessary. 

1 This is doubtless better than " forty " (the Percy reading). 



90 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

The introduction to the adventure is not so well managed in the 
French. Gawain loses his way in the woods and comes to a great fire, 
by which a chevalier is sitting. He spends the night by the fire, and 
the next morning his new acquaintance invites him to his castle, 
which he says is not far off. Gawain consents. [There is no such 
reason for guesting as in the Carl.] On their way thither, the stranger 
excuses himself and rides on ahead, ostensibly to prepare for Gawain's 
coming. [This incident, otiose in itself, is inserted to make possible 
the scene which immediately follows.] As Gawain proceeds, he over- 
hears certain shepherds lamenting his probable fate. Questioning 
them, he learns that many knights have visited this castle but that 
none have ever come back. The belief of the neighborhood is that 
the castellan kills every guest who does not fulfil all his commands, 
be they good or ill. Gawain scorns to decamp in obedience to the 
word of common fame. 

As here told, this incident almost spoils the story. It is 
proper that Gawain should be warned of danger^ — and such 
a warning undoubtedly stood in the common original of the 
Carl and the Chevalier — but he should not receive advance 
information (and in the Carl he does not) of the only method 
of escape. His deliverance should be due (as in the Carl) to 
his innate courtesy. Besides, it is ludicrous that the lord of 
the castle should ride ahead merely to give the shepherds a 
chance to block his game. 

Arrived at the castle, Gawain is well received. He takes pains to 
agree with his host in everything. [The poverty of the story at this 
point shows its variation from the older form. Certain tests in the 
way of bizarre orders which Gawain is to fulfil or the like (even if these 
are not the same as the spear-throwing in the Carl of Carlisle) ought 
to be found, especially since we learn later that it has been difficult for 
previous adventurers to pass the day without opposing their host in 
something. Throughout the day the host (in this poem) requires 
naught of Gawain which the knight cannot easily and agreeably do, — 
nothing, in short, but to stay in the castle, eat dinner, and pay court 
to a charming young lady.] The host introduces Gawain to his 
daughter and instructs her to be in all ways agreeable to the knight. 
He leaves them together while he goes to the kitchen to give orders 

1 The warner is a traditional figure (see p. 104). 



LE CHEVALIER A L'fiPfiE 9 1 

for dinner. [Apparently the author forgets that the host had ridden 
ahead with the express intention of seeing that ever)^hing was ready.] 
Gawain and the maiden fall in love. She tells Gawain of her father's 
evil ways and cautions him not to contradict or oppose him. [This 
is a feeble repetition of the warning already uttered by the shepherds, 
and is certainly not wanted.] After dinner the host goes out " to 
view his woods." He bids Gawain stay indoors and talk with the 
maiden. Nothing of importance passes between them, but she takes 
occasion to caution him yet again not to oppose her father in any way! 
At night the host returns and has Gawain put to bed in his own 
bed along with his daughter. Gawain would have had his will, but 
the maiden warns him that if he attempts this a magic sword which 
hangs near-by will dart from the sheath and pierce him through the 
body, as it has done to every knight who has so far been submitted 
to this test. Nevertheless Gawain — thinking death better than ridi- 
cule — twice approaches the damsel, but is both times slightly 
wounded, and finally remains quiet. Next morning the lord of the 
castle is disappointed at finding his guest aHve. Discovering how the 
sword has behaved, he asks and learns Gawain's name, and learning 
it, hails him as the best knight in the world. The bed and the sword, 
he says, were a test for the discovery of this nonpareil. He now 
offers Gawain his daughter and his castle. Gawain accepts the former 
but not the latter. The next night Gawain and his amie sleep together 
undisturbed. Gawain remains some time at the castle, but at last, 
wishing to return to his kindred, departs, along with his amie. 

The narrative of Gawain's first night at the castle is cer- 
tainly not in its original form, for it includes the incident of 
the Perilous Bed, which is foreign to this story and is not 
very skilfully introduced into it here.^ We should particu- 
larly note that the host is not acting squarely. Gawain has 
every reason to make the damsel his amie. It is really dis- 
obedience not to do S0.2 We observe, too, that throughout 
the Chevalier a VEpee there is no mention of the host's wife. 
Comparison with the Carl, with Gawain and the Green 
Knight, and with Ider justifies us in inferring that the miss- 
ing lady has been supplanted by her daughter. Note that 

^ See p. 303, below. 

2 See vv. 286-291, 364-365, 501. 



92 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

the couple are lodged in the host's own chamber and bed.^ 
The sword is intrusive. Gawain should refrain out of 
courtesy, and loyalty to his host — this being the supreme 
test. It is not beyond the bounds of legitimate guessing to 
conjecture that in one form of the story Gawain placed his 
drawn sword between the lady and himself as a proof of 
continence. Perhaps the adventure in the Carl should be 
changed, too, so that the test may occupy not a few minutes 
but all night. The author of the Chevalier a VEpee found the 
test too incredible, for more reasons than one, and so sub- 
stituted the daughter for the wife and, borrowing the adven- 
ture of the lit perilleux from Chretien, made the sword a 
magic weapon which actually ensured chastity. The author 
of the Carl (or one of his predecessors) for a similar reason 
reduced the night to a short time and kept the husband 
standing near, thereby making the test ridiculous, from the 
point of view of a test, but at the same time equating it with 
what he supposed to be the limits of human fortitude. 

The end of the Chevalier a VEpee is quite a different story, 
added merely to separate Gawain and his new amie, for 
Gawain can have no enduring liaison. He must take the 
daughter, for he has won her, and the winning of her is a 
necessary part of the tale; but the conteur wishes to get rid 
of the lady, and he accordingly substitutes for the proper 
conclusion (doubtless preserved in the English) a well-known 
cynical parable that contrasts the fidelity of dogs with the 
faithlessness of women.^ 

The French poet gives no reason for the strange custom 
of the castle except that the sword was to pick out the best 
knight in the world.^ There is no suggestion that the castel- 
lan is under spells. It is not even said that he abandoned his 
evil ways. In this, as in so many other points. The Carl of 
^ Vv. 456 ff. 2 Sge p 204. 3 Vv. 746-766. 



THE CANZONI AND THE EXEMPLA 93 

Carlisle is nearer the original form of the story. Observe, 
also, that the frightful shape of the lord of the castle has 
disappeared in the French poem. He is, to all seeming, 
an ordinary knight. This modification of the savagery of 
the tale is parallel to the treatment which the Irish story of 
the Challenge has experienced in the Livre de Caradoc,^ and 
is highly significant. 

The Canzoni and the Exempla 

The essentials of the story which we are examining are 
preserved in two short Italian poems of the fourteenth cen- 
tury, one of them anonymous, the other by Antonio Pucci.^ 
The anonymous poem tells the following tale: 

Gawain {il buon messer Chalvano), in a strange country and in need 
of food and drink, sees a castle (rocha) and asks a peasant (vilano) to 
whom it belongs. " To the most courteous of knights," is the answer, 
" who receives all comers honorably, but beats them soundly when 
they depart." Gawain laughs: "Let me once have enough to eat, 
and he may break my neck if he wishes." The castellan meets Gawain, 
attends him into the castle, holds his stirrup as if Gawain were his 
lord, seats him at table, and serves him in person. Gawain makes no 
objection to all these courtesies. After supper the guest is conducted 
to a rich bed. Next morning the owner of the castle is as ceremonious 
as ever. He holds Gawain's stirrup again, escorts him some miles on 
his journey, and takes his leave. Gawain soon recollects what the 
peasant had told him. He turns back, calls after his host, and asks 
him why the customary beating has been dispensed with. " My 
father left me this castle," the gentleman replies, "and a competent 
estate. Everybody who comes to my house acts as if he were the 
master of it. That is, he wishes to give me what is my own. If I say, 
' Drink,' he says, ' Drink youl ' For this reason I treat him as he 
deserves. You have not attempted in this fashion to deprive me of 
the mastership in my own house. Hence I have not beaten you." 
The poem closes with a plain statement of the moral: We should 
never contend in courtesy with our entertainer, but should accept his 
hospitality without ceremonious protest. 

* See pp. 33-34. 2 See p. 304, below. 



94 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Pucci's poem tells the same story in almost identical terms 
and appends the same moral. The two canzoni resemble 
each other closely in length, in metrical and rhetorical struc- 
ture, and even in phraseology.^ Yet neither of them is a 
rifacimento of the other. The anonymous canzone cannot 
be derived from Pucci, for it preserves the Arthurian frame- 
work which Pucci has rejected: the adventure happens " in 
the time of the Round Table " and the hero is Gawain 
(Chalvano) ; in Pucci, the hero is merely a " gentleman of 
Rome " who is travelling '' alia ventura," and the Round 
Table is not mentioned. On the other hand, Pucci retains 
the very important incident of the test by means of the 
host's wife, which the anonymous canzone has discarded : — • 

Mangiato ch' ebbon con suo piacimento, 

Vennono al tempo poi a un ricco letto. 

Disse 11 signor perf etto : 

" O gentiluomo, entrate in questa sponda! " 

Ch' era dall' altra sua sposa gioconda. 

Ed ei v'entro, ne fe al dir diviso: 

Ma quel signor da poi nel mezzo entrava, 

E cosi si posava (Carducci, p. 462). 

The anonymous poem says merely: — 

Quando fu tenpo, fu mosso a dormire 
In u leto richisimo e adorno (w. 27-28). 

Pucci's preservation of this important episode shows his 
independence of the anonymous canzone. We are forced, 
therefore, to derive both poems from a lost original. That 
this was in ItaHan, and that it did not differ much in form or 
phrase from the two poems as we now have them, is shown 
by the close similarity between the metrical structure and 
the language of the poems themselves. 

The lost Italian original of course went back to some 
French romance of Gawain. But this French romance can- 
^ See Rajna, Zeitschrift fur romanische Philologie, I, 385. 



THE CANZONI AND THE EXEMPLA 9$ 

not have been Le Chevalier a VEpee, as Rajna was inclined to 
think. For Pucci has the characteristic episode of the test 
with the wife, which is preserved in The Carl of Carlisle, but 
for which the author of Le Chevalier a VEpee has substituted 
the daughter and the lit perilleux. 

The Italian poem which Pucci and the anonymous 
rhymster worked over must, then, go back to a French poem 
from which both the Carl and the Chevalier are somehow 
derived. Thus the existence of the two ItaHan poems raises 
the French origin of The Carl of Carlisle from an inevitable 
probability to a complete certainty, since there can of course 
be no direct connection between the English romance and 
the Italian canzoni. It also confirms our inference that the 
Carl is in some ways a more faithful reproduction of its 
original than the Chevalier. The common French original of 
the Carl and the Chevalier must have had both the tempta- 
tion with the wife and the winning of the daughter. The 
Carl has preserved both incidents ; the Chevalier has omitted 
all mention of the wife, but has kept the winning of the 
daughter, transferring thereto an essential part of the 
Temptation and adding the lit perilleux. This transference 
accounts for the contradiction which the French poem 
shows. It was proper for Gawain to spare his host's wife, 
but he had every right to make the daughter his amie — 
in fact he had been ordered to do so by his host, whose 
commands he was bound to obey to the letter. Hence the 
host ought not to expect him to refrain. There is no such 
contradiction in the Carl. 

The two canzoni, as we have seen, resemble each other so 
closely that we can form an exact idea of their immediate 
Italian original. This must have differed considerably from 
its French source, for it was no longer a romance of magic 
and marvels, but a mere anecdote, intended to enforce a 



96 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

familiar lesson in manners — in short a versified exemplum. 
Indeed, Pucci's canzone is entitled '' Da un esemplo," etc., 
and the anonymous canzone is headed '' Morale." Clearly, 
then, the lost Italian poem did not draw its material from 
the lost French poem directly, but through some inter- 
mediate version in which the tale had already been stripped 
of its marvels and clothed in the sober garb of a brief 
moral anecdote, — in a word, through a Latin exemplum 
in prose. 

Such a Latin text is fortunately preserved in Harleian 
MS. 3938, a collection of fables and miscellaneous exempla 
made in Italy. The manuscript is of the sixteenth century, 
but the contents are much older, and a comparison of the 
exemplum with the two canzoni shows that it cannot be a 
reworking of either of them. Since the text is brief and 
inedited, I print it entire. 

Legitur in nouis Artusii de Britagna, quod dominus Galuanus 
nepos regis Artusii, audiens de quodam castellano qui ultra modum 
honorabat milites forenses in domo sua et in recessu faciebat eos 
uerberari, iuit ad curiam ejus. Et dum ille qui erat custos hoc uidisset, 
dixit castellano de adventu militis: castellanus iuit ei obuiam cum 
multis dominabus et domicellis alacriter suscipiens eum; et cum 
veniret ad plateam, aliae ex dominabus ceperunt frenum equi, aliae 
lanceam, aliae clipeum, aliae galeam, aliae stapidera tenuerunt, aliae 
calcaria, aliae destrarium miserunt ad stallum. ^ Et ductus ad pran- 
dium, multis ferculis ei datis, alia dedit aquam ad manus, alia baciie 
tenuit, alia manutergium; et posito eo ad mensam, alia fercula 
presentabat, alia panem, alia carnes ei incidebat, alia uinum propina- 
bat. Et sero positus honorifice ad dormire, et a domicellabus spoliatus 
et discalciatus, passus est sibi fieri omnia. Mane autem facto, audita 
missa et sumpto prandio, accepit lanceam. Et castellanus faciens ei 
scortam bene duabus miliaribus eum licentiauit. Et cum ille ab eo 
longius recessit dixit intra se: '' Ego sum uilis, quia recedo nee sciam 
causam quare alii verberati sunt et ego non." Et reuersus ad castel- 
lanum, quesiuit quare milites in recessu suo verberarentur, et ipse 
tantum honore[m] receperat. Cui castellanus respondit : " Cum milites 
veniunt ad domum meam, ego nitor eis honorem facere, ipsi uero in 



THE CANZONI AND THE EXEMPLA 97 

contrarium faciunt et dicunt: ' Domine, domine, ego nolo, hoc non 
faciatis! ' et nolunt in domo mea mihi dominari. Et propterea eos 
uerberari f acio in recessu. Vos quidem non sic f ecistis ; immo quicquid 
nobis facere uolui passus fuistis. Vnde nihil dico nobis et aliis nisi in 
recessu." ^ 

This copy does not transmit the precise text that our 
Italian versifier had before him, for it lacks certain incidents 
that he must have found in his immediate source, — in 
particular, Gawain's conversation with the warning peasant, 
and the test with the wife, though it has a trace of both : 
of the warning in the fact that Gawain had heard of the 
chdtelain's custom; of the test, in the fact that he is waited 
upon so elaborately by women. Still, the Harleian copy 
does undoubtedly represent, with condensation and other 
changes, the Latin exemplum which the Itahan versifier used, 
— and it appeals expressly to a written source in Arthurian 
romance, that is, as we now understand, to the lost Old 
French original of the Carl of Carlisle and Le Chevalier a 
VEpee. 

A similar exemplum is recorded by Etienne de Bourbon, 
the celebrated Dominican preacher and inquisitor of the 
thirteenth century, in his work entitled De Septem Bonis 
Spiritus Sancti. 

De Timore Humano 

Qui vero preponunt carnem spiritui similes sunt illi qui preponit 
asinum suum sibi et plus de eo cogitat. Et similes sunt illi militi, qui 
elegit hospicium ubi provideretur equo suo et ipse negligeretur. Unde 
dicitur quod tres miHtes condixerunt ad invicem (ad hoc facit exem- 
plum quod audivi a fratre Matheo, primo Fratrum Predicatorum 
Parisius priore, qui dicebat vel parabolice vel in veritate) quod quere- 
rent fortunam (que dicitur fortune aventure) ; et cum ingrederentur 
civitatem quamdam, dictum est eis quod non erant ibi nisi tria hos- 
picia: in uno equi bene procurabantur et equites fame moriebantur; 

^ Harleian MS. 3938, fol. 121 (see Herbert, Catalogue of Romances, III, 
710). I have regulated stops and capitals. 



98 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

in alio erat a contrario; in tercio autem equus et eques bene, sed vix 
erat quin in exitu eques bene verberaretur. Tres ergo tria hospicia 
acceperunt, et invenerunt ut eis dictum fuerat, tercio excepto, qui 
non fuerat verberatus. Et cum quereret causam quare non fuerat 
verberatus, dictum est ei quod domino domus bene obediens in 
omnibus fuerat. 

Civitas est mundus, in quo sunt tres hospites: quidam sunt qui 
nimiam curam gerunt de equo procurando, neglecto milite (equus 
corpus, miles anima sunt) . . . ; alii sunt qui indiscreto animo corpus 
atterunt, et spiritus et spiritualium curam tantum gerunt; tercii sunt 
qui utrique discrete intendunt, et ut per omnia Deo obediant: hii sine 
fiagello, cum recedunt a mundo, pertranseunt.^ 

Etienne, we observe, heard the story from Matthew, prior 
of the Friars Preachers at Paris, and he was not sure 
whether Matthew told it as a fact or parabolice. Etienne's 
exemplum has been so elaborated in a spiritual sense that it 
cannot find any certain place in our pedigree. There is, 
however, nothing to show that it was not ultimately derived 
from the source of Le Chevalier a VEpee, though it would be 
rash to undertake to prove any such proposition. 

Another version of the same story is current as a folk-tale 
in Russia. 

There was once a countryman named Damian who was very fond 
of fighting. One day he invited another peasant to his house, and, 
having bidden his wife prepare a meal, told his guest to be seated. 
" Don't give yourself any trouble for me. Master Damian," he repHed; 
whereupon Damian gave him a good sound slap in the face, with the 
remark that " in another's house one ought to obey the head of the 
family." They took their places at table and Damian applied himself 
to serving his guest. The latter fell to, but protested again when he 
saw Damian cut the bread: " Why cut so much bread. Master 
Damian ? " Damian dealt him another buffet, and repeated the 
performance at every contradiction, always making the same remark — 
that in another's house one should do as the owner bids. 

Then there arrived in the courtyard another guest, ill-clad, but 
shrewd and subtle. " Welcome, welcome! " said Damian, saluting him 

^ Ed. Lecoy de La Marche, pp. 17-18. For other copies see pp. 271 flf., 
below. 



HUMBAUT 99 

from the doorstone, and already anticipating the pleasure of a new 
afifray. " Pray excuse me," said the newcomer, " for entering your 
courtyard without an invitation." " No excuse is necessary. Walk 
in! " The stranger entered, took his seat at the table, accepted what 
was offered him, and did whatever he was bidden, so that Damian had 
no chance to quarrel with him. Then Damian thought of other 
expedients. He produced the best suit of clothes he had and said to 
the stranger: " Strip and put on these," thinking that he would cer- 
tainly decline. But the guest obeyed, and continued to comply with 
all the commands of his host. Finally Damian told him to mount a 
good horse he had, and to leave in exchange his own sorry nag. 
The stranger obeyed, while Damian thought he must be dreaming. 
Then Damian told him to depart, and off he went; but when he was 
out of the courtyard, he put spurs to Damian's horse, calling out, as 
he rode away: " Blame yourself, Damian, for the devil isn't here for 
nothing! " ^ 

Here the moral has been quite distorted, and the exem- 
plum becomes a humorous anecdote of '* The biter bit/' but 
the story is still recognizable. 

HUMBAUT 

The Old French romance of Humbaut, already drawn upon 
for the Challenge,^ contains an episode that involves an 
Imperious Host. It is not brought into connection with the 
Challenge, but occurs at least a day's journey on the hither 
side of the harbor where Gawain must embark for the city 
of his destination. 

Gawain and Humbaut are riding to the King of the Isles to claim 
his allegiance for Arthur. Humbaut informs Gawain that they are 
to take hospitality that night with a rich and powerful lord, who gets 
very angry with anybody who violates his commands in the least 
particular. Hanging is the penalty for the most trifling disobedience. 
" Take special pains," he warns him, " that our host may find nothing 
to criticise in your conduct. Before he sits down at table himself, he 

^ Afanasief, new ed.. Ill, 521-522, as reported by Wesselofsky, Rivisia di 
Filologia Romanza, II, 227. 
2 Pp. 61 ff. 



lOO GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

will assign you to a place above all the others, and you and his daughter 
will sit together. She is the fairest creature in the world, and she has 
confessed to me that she loves you and would glady be yours, but she 
lives in deadly fear of her father's wrath. Be very careful how you 
bear yourself in your conversation with her. I have spent more than 
thirty-one weeks at her father's, and I know his ways." Gawain 
promises to walk circumspectly: their host shall find nothing to 
object to. 

They arrive at the castle, which is on a harbor, and includes a fine 
town, with a flourishing commerce. More than twenty knights come 
to meet them. Humbaut presents Gawain by name to the rich lord, 
who is playing draughts in his hall. He springs up and greets him as 
the best knight in the world. Gawain sits by his side and tells of their 
journey. The table is laid. The daughter enters, and her father 
makes her sit above all the others, and himself conducts Gawain to a 
place by her side. Humbaut sits with the host. 

Gawain asks the maiden for her love, and she grants his suit. She 
has often heard of his renown, she declares, and has never wished to 
love another. They pledge their faith, and are so enamored that they 
forget to eat. Gawain loses all memory of Humbaut 's warnings, and 
the damsel all thought of her father's anger. Humbaut sees that they 
are in love and he is much alarmed [but their host pays no attention 
and shows no displeasure]. At bedtime, the maiden retires to her 
chamber. Her father follows, detains her at the chamber door, and 
reproves her for impoliteness in taking such short leave of the wisest 
and most courteous of men. He bids her give Gawain one kiss by way 
of leave-taking. Gawain promptly kisses the maiden four times. 
The lord is furious: " He makes no account of my commands! He 
has kissed my daughter three times more than I said! Have his eyes 
put out, and let him be thrown into my prison! " 

All the knights protest in concert: "You have committed many 
outrages, but none that touches thisl We shall all be hanged or burned 
wherever we are taken! Messire Humbaut does not come hither to 
pay the eyes of the king's nephew as scot ! " The lord is [unaccount- 
ably] placable, and accepts Gawain's apologies, — " but let him be 
more careful another time." That night the damsel visits Gawain 
secretly. Early next morning he and Humbaut leave the castle 
without let or hindrance, and apparently without seeing their host 
again. Whether Gawain returned to the castle at some later time 
cannot be determined, for the romance is not finished in the unique 
manuscript.^ 

1 Vv. 490-850, ed. Stiirzinger and Breuer, pp. 15-26. 



THE PRINCIPLE OF MANNERS lOI 

The episode of the Imperious Host, as told in Humbaut, 
makes a pretty good story, but has been so freely handled by 
the author (or by some predecessor) that it helps us in only a 
general way. On the whole it comes nearest to Le Chevalier 
a VEpee. As in that poem, there is no wife, and the Temp- 
tation is transferred to the daughter. But the damsel 
becomes Gawain's amie secretly, and not (as in the Carl and 
the Chevalier) by the father's orders as a reward for Ga- 
wain's obedience. Gawain, in fact, is not obedient, and 
escapes cruel punishment only by the strenuous exertions of 
the host's retainers. 

As in the Chevalier, Gawain is forewarned of his host's 
requirements with complete particularity. His informant, 
however, is a companion, not a peasant whom he falls in 
with. Thus, by a coincidence, we have a slight agreement 
with the Carl of Carlisle, in which Bishop Baldwin tells 
Gawain of the danger of lodging at the castle. But the 
resemblance is purely fortuitous and does not indicate any 
special connection with the Carl. Baldwin's warning, 
indeed, is very different from Humbaut's, for it gives Gawain 
no information how to avoid the danger.^ 

In general, however, the episode in Humbaut is helpful, 
for it serves as one more indication of the popularity of the 
Temptation in mediaeval Hterature; and besides, it illus- 
trates the readiness with which the story might be modified 
to suit a fresh context. 

The Principle of Manners 

It would be possible to regard some exemplum enforcing 
the lesson that a guest should obey his host in everything 
without ceremony — such a didactic anecdote as Etienne's 
— as the kernel of the special group of Arthurian romances 

1 P. 104. 



I02 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

that we are considering, — the Carl-Chevalier group. Such 
an hypothesis will doubtless seem attractive to those stu- 
dents who are anxious to explain away all the Celtic material 
as a mere outgrowth of mediaeval ethical formulas or social 
conventions. Ammunition for a campaign of this nature 
might perhaps be found in the burlesque romance of Ralph 
the Collier {Rauf Coilyear), which belongs to the group of 
poems and tales in which a king who has lost his way is 
hospitably entertained by a rustic who has no suspicion of 
the exalted rank of his guest. ^ 

Chariemagne has got separated from his retinue in a great storm. 
He falls in with Ralph the Collier, who offers him a lodging. When 
they are about to enter the house, the collier " puts the king before 
him," but Charles steps back to let his host enter first. Ralph resents 
this extremely. He seizes Charles by the neck and forces him in, 
upbraiding him with his discourtesy. The guest ought to obey the 
host, he intimates. The host should be allowed "to be lord of his 
own " (v. 128). When supper is ready, Charles is bidden to take the 
collier's wife by the hand and " begin the buird," i.e. sit at the head 
of the table. Unmindful of his recent lesson, Charles replies that it 
would be unseemly for him to take his place before his host is seated. 
Thereupon Ralph hits the king under the ear and makes him stagger 
half across the room. " Thou shouldst have better manners," he 
cries. " Do as I bid thee! The house is mine and all that is in it." 
The king obeys, and has no more trouble. The residue of the story 
does not concern us. 

Ralph's views of poHteness, it will be seen, are precisely 
like those of the hospitable gentleman in the canzoni, and 
he expresses them in very similar language. His method of 
instruction, too, resembles that of the lord of the castle in 
Pucci and the anonymous Italian poem. We are obviously 
in the presence of a mediaeval commonplace lesson on this 
subject. And, in fact, the principle of manners involved is 
well-known apart from its illustration in tale-telling. Thus 

1 See p. 305. 



THE PRINCIPLE OF MANNERS 1 03 

in Le Castoiement d'un Pere a son Fils we find the precept 
clearly stated : 

Beau pere, dit li filz, comment 

Doit on respondre a la gent, 

Quant aucuns m'envie a mengier ? . . . 

Fai ce que il commandera. 

Qui que soit qui t'enviera. 

S'il est preudon de grant ajffaire, 

Tu ne t'en doiz mie retraire.^ 

Similarly, in Les Contenances de la Table, we read: 

Enfant, se tu es en maison 
D'autrui, et le maistre te dit 
Que te sees, sans contredit 
Faire le peulz selon raison.^ 

The proverbial remark, when a guest contends with one in 
courtesy, was, in EHzabethan England: " Let me rule you 
in my house, and you shall rule me in yours." ^ 

To infer, however, that a romance hke the Carl or the 
Chevalier was evolved from a mere principle of manners 
would be a real hysteron proteron. It would be to ignore the 
marvellous, which is the gist of the matter. For the Carl 
and its group turn unquestionably on disenchantment, and 
obedience to the savage host is a condition precedent. No 
doubt the proverbial didactics of the middle ages lent a 
certain coloring to the romance.'' Or we may even grant 
that the Carl shows a combination of two stories: an old 

^ Barbazan-Meon, II, 163 (quoted by Wesselofsky, Rivista di Filologia 
Romanza, II, 226). 

2 Vv. 25-28, Furnivall, The Bahees Book, Part II, p. 9. 

3 Deloney, Gentle Craft, ed. A. F. Lange, p. 70; the play of Sir Thomas 
More, act iv, scene i, vv. 106-107 (Tucker Brooke, The Shakespeare Apoc- 
rypha, p. 404). 

* In the Roman van Walewein, Gawain meets the courtesy of his host, who 
bids him sit by the queen at dinner, with the remark: " You are my host; 
I will do as you bid; but I am not worthy of the honor " (w. 2562 ff., ed. 
Jonckbloct, p. 87). 



I04 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

disenchantment tale in which the charm could be unlocked 
only by a quester who should obey his host in all things; and 
an exemplary anecdote enforcing the lesson of courteous 
deference. Such an admission probably goes farther than 
need be, but if it is made, will in no wise affect the issue. 
For the true kernel of the romance still remains that of dis- 
enchantment by performing strange requirements. 

The Version used in the French Gawain 
AND the Green Knight 

We have not yet exhausted the information to be derived 
from the canzoni. In some respects these poems show 
closer resemblances to the Chevalier than to any other poem 
that remains to us. Thus in both the Italian and the French 
the intending guest is warned by a peasant (in Pucci, by a 
donzello) of the disagreeable custom of his host. In the 
Italian he is informed that all strangers are beaten soundly 
when they depart; in the French, he learns that they never 
get away alive. This assuredly traditional figure of the 
warning peasant ^ is lacking in the Carl, but has left a trace 
behind. When the three companions, — Gawain, Kay, and 
Bishop Baldwin — are at a loss for a night's lodging, it is 
Baldwin who informs his friends of the whereabouts of the 
castle, and the good bishop is acquainted with the CarFs 
reputation: — 

Was ther nevyr barun so bolde, 

That euer mygt gaystyn in his holde, 
But evyl] harbrowe he fonde; 

He schall be bette, as I harde say, 

And jefe he go wtt lyfe a-way, 

Hit war but goddes sonde (w. 145-150). 

1 Cf., for example, Kulhwch and Olwen (Loth, 2d ed., I, 291); Ivain, w. 
5105 ff.; Erec, vv. 57i6£f.; Perceval, vv. 8g6gS.; Vengeance Raguidel, vv. 
580 ff.; Eger and Grceme (Laing), w. loi ff., 1441 ff. 



THE FRENCH VERSION 105 

Pucci's canzone confirms our conjecture ^ that the test 
with the wife lasted all night in the original, as it does (with 
substitution of daughter for wife) in the Chevalier, and also 
our inference that in the original of the Chevalier, Gawain 
laid his sword between himself and the lady. In all cases in 
which the hero is brought into such circumstances, — 
whether as a test or a reward, or merely as a honne fortune, — 
the duration should not be less than a night and the pair 
should be left alone, as in Wolfdietrich ^ and in a large 
number of examples cited by Child in his comments on the 
ballad of The Broomfield HilJ.^ 

The incident of beheading the host to disenchant him is 
preserved in the Percy version of the Carl, but is omitted in 
the Porkington text and the Chevalier because of its gro- 
tesque improbabihty. It is the final act in the unspelHng 
process and is done, as it should be, at his own request. The 
excision of the incident in the Porkington version has left its 
mark: ^ the redactor omits too much, — he does not explain 
how the monstrous Carl could become a knight of the Round 
Table with no change of shape. We observe, too, that the 
Porkington version is not very clear as to the host's being 
disenchanted at all, and that the Chevalier has suppressed 
all reference to his being under spells. Disenchantment by 
decapitation is an ancient and widespread theme, ^ and is 
unquestionably in place in this group of romances. Thus 
we may now recognize in the common source of the Chevalier 
a VEpee and The Carl of Carlisle a short romance in which 
the Temptation was used as the supreme trial to which an 
adventurer is subjected. The outcome being favorable, the 
enchantment which kept the host in his hideous gigantic 
shape and forced him to act as a destructive monster was 

^ P. 92. 2 pp 218-219. ^ P- 263, below. 

4 Paris, Uistoire Litteraire, XXX, 68. s pp_ 200 £f. 



Io6 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT ^ 

dissolved; one final ceremony (decapitation) restored him 
to his human shape, and he was then made a knight of the i 
Round Table. y 

By comparing the Ider ^ with the poems which we have 
just been considering, and by bearing in mind the English 
Gawain and the Green Knight, we are enabled to reconstruct, 
beyond a reasonable doubt, that form of the Temptation 
which the author of the lost French Gawain and the Green 
Knight combined with the Challenge to make up his plot. 
It had some such shape as follows: — 

Gawain has lost his way and is in need of shelter. He is harbored 
in a castle or manor, the lord of which is a giant or a huge carl with a 
fair and seductive wife. This carl is under spells which force him to 
put to death all guests who do not successfully submit to certain tests. 
He has already slain great numbers. Gawain knows nothing of the 
tests, or even of their existence, though he has been warned against 
his host; but his innate courtesy and loyalty carry him in triumph 
through even the hardest of them, — temptation by the beautiful lady 
of the castle, who pretends to be enamored of him but really loves her 
husband alone. On the accomplishment of this last test, the host bids 
Gawain cut off his head. He obeys, reluctantly, and the enchantment 1 
is dissolved, the knight rising up in his true shape. Gawain then takes I 
his host to court, where he is made a knight of the Round Table. } 

This reconstructed version is no fancy sketch. It is 
preserved to all intents and purposes in the group of poems 
to which the Carl of Carlisle belongs. Indeed, except for the 
active temptation on the lady's part, it might serve as a 
reconstruction of the French romance to which all the poems 
of the Carl group (the Carl, the Chevalier, and the canzoni) 
have been shown to go back, and this feature, does survive 
in the Ider in a very primitive form. 

1 See pp. 83 £f. 



IV. THE COMBINED PLOT OF GAWAIN 
AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

We have now studied in detail the two stories — the Chal- 
lenge and the Temptation — which the author of the French 
Gawain and the Green Knight fused or amalgamated in con- 
structing his plot. Each of the two, as we have seen, has an 
origin and a history quite independent of the other. No- 
where do they occur combined to make a single narrative 
except in Gawain and the Green Knight. Our next business 
is to examine the method and the result of this process of 
combination. 

At the outset we must be on our guard against a mistake 
too often made by students of this romance. Gawain and 
the Green Knight is by no means a mere version of the Chal- 
lenge modified by the insertion of an additional adventure. 
On the contrary, the Temptation with its attendant cir- 
cumstances occupies, in actual space, rather more than half 
of the EngHsh poem and claims considerably more than half 
the reader's interest. Indeed, it would be quite as correct 
to say that the author takes the Challenge as a mere frame 
in which to put the story of the Temptation. In fact, how- 
ever, the poem as we have it is a skilful combination of two 
entirely independent adventures so managed as to produce 
a harmonious unit. No reader who was ignorant of the 
parallels which we have been discussing would think of 
taking it apart, or would suspect that it had been put to- 
gether out of elements that originally had nothing to do with 
each other, any more than a reader of King Lear would 
imagine that the story of Gloster and his two sons had 
originally nothing to do with the Lear story but was first 
combined with it by Shakspere himself on the basis of an 

anecdote in Sidney's Arcadia. 

107 



Io8 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

The gigantic axeman of the Challenge, who visited 
Arthur's court and proposed the beheading-game, and the 
monstrous carl of the Temptation, who subjected his guests 
to a crucial test with his wife, are now merged in a single 
character. This was easy and natural, for both the challen- 
ger and the host wxre huge uncanny creatures, of strange 
appearance and supernatural powers, who survived decapi- 
tation. Bernlak de Hautdesert,^ the personage resulting 
from this merging of the challenger and the host, is a shape- 
shifter: he appears first as a half-etin at Arthur's court, 
afterwards as a comely knight at his own castle, still later as 
a half-etin once more at the Green Chapel. Here again, the 
French poet was proceeding by an easy and natural method. 
The axeman of the Challenge was manifestly a being with 
strange powers, and shape-shifting might readily be credited 
to him, while the host in the Temptation actually shifted his 
shape from giant to knight at the end of the story. From 
this shape-shifting quality there results, in the combined 
plot, the inability (on the part of both Gawain and the 
reader) to suspect that the knight who entertains him is 
identical with the challenger. Their identity is revealed 
after the return-blow is given. In the EngHsh poem, Bern- 
lak is left in his half-gigantic guise, but we may conjecture 
that in the French original he resumed his knightly appear- 
ance, somehow, at the moment of the edaircissement. We 
shall return to this question presently. 

In the Challenge, Gawain was subjected to a single test for 
valor and fidehty to his word; in the Temptation (in the 
form in which that story came into the hands of the French 
author whose craftsmanship we are considering) he was 
tested for courtesy when a guest. In the combination, 

1 This name may be used for convenience, though it may first have been 
given to the character by the English poet. 



THE COMBINED PLOT 109 

Bernlak tests all his knightly qualities, — the Challenge and 
the Temptation fitting together admirably for this purpose. 
The scene of the return-blow is transferred to a place (called 
the Green Chapel in the English) near Bernlak's castle. 
Thus Gawain's presence is ensured on the spot where the 
Temptation must be carried out; for the castle is the only 
place in the vicinity of the Green Chapel where a traveller 
can find hospitality, or, indeed, at which the exact where- 
abouts of the Chapel can be ascertained. In the combined 
plot, then, Gawain can never find the Green Chapel withoiit 
calling at the castle, — so that, if he keeps his appointment 
(as he did in the Challenge story), his presence at the place 
of the Temptation is made absolutely certain. Here the 
French author is proceeding in accordance with donnees of 
romance and marchen that he certainly knew well. For 
there are many stories in which a hero, having submitted 
himself to the terms of a game or adventure, must, as a part 
of the bargain, present himself within a given term at a place 
of which he has never heard and whose whereabouts are 
quite unknown to him. It may well have been his know- 
ledge of such stories that first suggested to our combining 
Frenchman the union of the Challenge and the Temptation 
which he carried out so fehcitously.^ 

We should here remember that at least two other roman- 
cers, working quite independently of the French Gawain poet, 
and utilizing the Challenge in combinations quite different 
from his, shifted the scene of the return-blow to the residence 
of the challenger as a necessary result of their combinations, 
— the author of La Mule and the author of Perlesmus} In 
their case, however, the opening scene of the Challenge had 

^ See pp. 196-197. 

2 Perhaps we should add the author of Humbaut (p. 62) ; but he may- 
have been indebted to La Mule, though I hardly thmk so. 



no GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

to be shifted also. Not so in the case of our poem. There it 
could remain at Arthur's court, and remain it did. Inciden- 
tally, the shifting of the scene of the return-blow by the 
combination greatly increases the honor due to Gawain 
for keeping his word. A less valorous and faithful knight 
might have returned to Arthur's court with a lie on his lips 
to claim credit for achieving an adventure which he had 
avoided. No such avoidance was possible so long as the 
return-blow was to be dealt by the challenger in full sight of 
the assembled court at the Pentecostal feast. 

In the Temptation, Gawain was warned on his approach 
to the castle that nobody could put up there and escape with 
his life, or without bodily harm.^ This incident, of course, 
the French combiner dropped, leaving his hero to seek hos- 
pitality at Bernlak's castle with no thought of danger. The 
omission raises the test involved in the Temptation to the 
very highest conceivable power — for Gawain has no sus- 
picion that anybody is testing him at the castle, or that his 
conduct there has any bearing on the issue of the beheading- 
game. In the Car/-group he comes through the tests by 
innate courtesy, and so he does in Gawain and the Green 
Knight, but in the Carl he has reason to walk circumspectly, 
for he is aware that he is on dangerous ground. In the 
romance, he is quite at his ease, and his good quaHties 
manifest themselves with pure spontaneity. 

Yet the figure of the warner, so conspicuous in the Temp- 
tation, was not dropped by the author of Gawain and the 
Green Knight. He kept that character in mind and utilized 
him in a highly felicitous manner. On New Year's morning, 
we recall, Gawain leaves Bernlak's castle under the conduct 
of a servant who is to guide him to the Green Chapel some 

^ So in The Carl of Carlisle, Le Chevalier d PEpee, both of the Italian can- 
zoni, and (in effect) in the Latin exemplum (pp. 96, 104). 



THE COMBINED PLOT III 

two miles distant. As they draw near, the attendant 
beseeches Gawain to abandon his purpose. " The place is 
held to be full perilous. It is inhabited by the worst man 
upon earth, — he is stiff and stern, and loves to strike. He 
is bigger than the best four of Arthur's retainers. None 
passes the Green Chapel that he does not kill. If you go 
there, you may be sure of death, though you had twenty 
lives, for you cannot defend yourself against his blows. 
Therefore, good Sir Gawain, let the man alone! Go away 
in some other direction, and I will return to the castle; and 
I swear to you by God and all his saints that I will keep your 
flight a secret! " Gawain thanks his guide warmly, but 
declares that to shun the danger would be inexcusable 
cowardice.! In details, no doubt, this incident owes much 
to the EngUsh poet. In substance, however, it unquestion- 
ably stood in his immediate French original, which obviously 
derived it from the Temptation. 

How far the details of the Temptation in the English 
Gawain reproduce those in its French source can never be 
determined, for the EngHsh poet was a man of genius and 
lavished his powers on this part of the romance. In the 
main outHnes, however, the EngHshman probably changed 
nothing. This probabihty is strengthened by a considera- 
tion of that form of the Temptation story which his French 
predecessor worked with, a form that we can reconstruct 
pretty well by comparing Ider with the Carl, the Chevalier, 
and the Italian canzoni. 

In this version, we may conjecture, Gawain was not 
actually put to bed with the host's wife, as in the Carl, in 
Pucci, and in the source of the Chevalier. The lady, we 
may be sure, was not merely passive, as in the Carl: like 
Ivenant's wife in Ider, she must have done her best to win 

1 Vv. 2087 £f. 



112 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

the love of her guest, though she cared for nobody but her 
husband. Probably, however, the coarseness and bald 
simplicity of manners which mark the episode in Ider had 
been a good deal refined before the author of the French 
Gawain received the incident, ^ though much of the delicacy 
which distinguishes the English romance may be unhesitat- 
ingly ascribed to the Enghsh poet. In Ider the lady 
approaches her guest in the hall, in the presence of a multi- 
tude of knights and squires. In the Enghsh, Bernlak's wife 
visits Gawain when he is alone. In both she finds him 
asleep. This detail of awaking the hero may have been in 
the version of the Temptation used by the author of the 
French Gawain. 

In the English romance, Bernlak (like Ivenant) is absent 
from the castle when the test takes place: he has gone out 
very early in the morning to hunt, leaving Gawain, ex- 
hausted by his toilsome journey, to lie abed as late as he 
wishes. This reminds one of the conduct of the castellan in 
the Chevalier a VEpee, who leaves Gawain all day in his 
daughter's charge while he goes out " to view his woods." 
In the original of the Carl and the Chevalier we may prob- 
ably infer a similar situation. In any case, the husband's 
absence, whether it was in the source used by the French- 
man or was invented by him, accords with popular fiction. 
In folk-tales in which a hero seeks entertainment at the 
castle of a giant or ogre or enchanter and is well received 
by the monster's wife or daughter or captive, whose love 
he wins,2 it is often the habit of the proprietor to spend the 

1 It is not maintained that the Ider was the source, mediate or immediate, 
from which the author of the French Gawain drew, but only that the Ider 
contains the incident in a ruder form than that in which it occurred in the 
French Gawain or its source. 

2 See pp^ 232 ff. 



THE COMBINED PLOT 11$ 

^ou wish, and will do in other respects whatever you think 
best." Bernlak takes instant advantage of the courteous 
phrase: ^' You have declared that you will do what I bid. 
Will you keep this promise?" "Yes, indeed!" replies 
Gawain. " While I remain in your castle, I will submit to 
your commands." ^ 

What motive, according to the French combiner, had 
Bernlak in desiring Gawain's presence at his castle and in 
'.ubjecting him to the Temptation ? Doubtless to be re- 
^jased from enchantment, for it seems Hkely that, in merg- 
^g the challenger and the host in one personage, the 
Frenchman would retain for this personage the characteristic 
trait that he was under a spell and could be released only by 
some knight who should come successfully through the 
Temptation as well as the other tests. All the host's strange 
actions in the Temptation story which the French combiner 
used, were explained by the enchantment under which he 
labored and from which he hoped one day to be relieved. 
This enchantment (taken over by the French poet) was now 
made to account for all the actions that Bernlak performed 
with reference to the beheading game as well as with 
reference to the Temptation. The beheading game was thus 
no longer a mere test of the hero's valor and honor (as it was 
in the Irish story, and hence in the episodical French 
romance R used by our poet) : it became not only a means 
of getting Gawain to the castle, but also a part of the fore- 
ordained machinery of disenchantment. Bernlak owes his 
strange shape to hostile magic, and none can set him free but 
the best of knights who shall (i) respond to his challenge at 
Arthur's court, (2) keep his word and seek the Green 
Chapel, (3) call at the castle on the way (as he must do if he 
is to find the Chapel at all) , (4) resist the lady's wiles, and 
1 Vv. 1079-1092. 



X 



112 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

the love of her guest, though she cared for nobody but her 
husband. Probably, however, the coarseness and bald 
simplicity of manners which mark the episode in Ider had 
been a good deal refined before the author of the French 
Gawain received the incident, ^ though much of the deHcacy 
which distinguishes the English romance may be unhesitat- 
ingly ascribed to the Enghsh poet. In Ider the lady 
approaches her guest in the hall, in the presence of a multi- 
tude of knights and squires. In the English, Bernlak's wife 
visits Gawain when he is alone. In both she finds him 
asleep. This detail of awaking the hero may have been in 
the version of the Temptation used by the author of the 
French Gawain. 

In the Enghsh romance, Bernlak (like Ivenant) is absent 
from the castle when the test takes place: he has gone out 
very early in the morning to hunt, leaving Gawain, ex- 
hausted by his toilsome journey, to lie abed as late as he 
wishes. This reminds one of the conduct of the castellan in 
the Chevalier a VEpee, who leaves Gawain all day in his 
daughter's charge while he goes out " to view his woods." 
In the original of the Carl and the Chevalier we may prob- 
ably infer a similar situation. In any case, the husband's 
absence, whether it was in the source used by the French- 
man or was invented by him, accords with popular fiction. 
In folk-tales in which a hero seeks entertainment at the 
castle of a giant or ogre or enchanter and is well received 
by the monster's wife or daughter or captive, whose love 
he wins,2 it is often the habit of the proprietor to spend the 

1 It is not maintained that the Ider was the source, mediate or immediate, 
from which the author of the French Gawain drew, but only that the Ider 
contains the incident in a ruder form than that in which it occurred in the 
French Gawain or its source. 

2 See pp. 232 fif. 



THE COMBINED PLOT 11$ 

you wish, and will do i^ other respects whatever you think 
best." Bernlak takes instant advantage of the courteous 
phrase: " You have declared that you will do what I bid. 
Will you keep this promise?" ''Yes, indeed!" replies 
Gawain. '' While I remain in your castle, I will submit to 
your commands." ^ 

What motive, according to the French combiner, had 
Bernlak in desiring Gawain's presence at his castle and in 
'subjecting him to the Temptation ? Doubtless to be re- 
leased from enchantment, for it seems Hkely that, in merg- 
ing the challenger and the host in one personage, the 
Frenchman would retain for this personage the characteristic 
trait that he was under a spell and could be released only by 
some knight who should come successfully through the 
Temptation as well as the other tests. All the host's strange 
actions in the Temptation story which the French combiner 
used, were explained by the enchantment under which he 
labored and from which he hoped one day to be relieved. 
This enchantment (taken over by the French poet) was now 
made to account for all the actions that Bernlak performed 
with reference to the beheading game as well as with 
reference to the Temptation. The beheading game was thus 
no longer a mere test of the hero's valor and honor (as it was 
in the Irish story, and hence in the episodical French 
romance R used by our poet) : it became not only a means 
of getting Gawain to the castle, but also a part of the fore- 
ordained machinery of disenchantment. Bernlak owes his 
strange shape to hostile magic, and none can set him free but 
the best of knights who shall (i) respond to his challenge at 
Arthur's court, (2) keep his word and seek the Green 
Chapel, (3) call at the castle on the way (as he must do if he 
is to find the Chapel at all), (4) resist the lady's wiles, and 

1 Vv. 1079-1092. 



Il6 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

(5) accept the return-blow. Thus the combination of the 
two tales to make the plot of the French Gawain resulted in 
an elaborate disenchantment story retaining the main feat- 
ures of both its component parts and bringing them all into 
line as consistent incidents subservient to one ruling purpose. 
Here again we may profitably compare the craftsmanship of 
Shakspere in constructing the plot of King Lear. Confirma- 
tion for this theory may be found in the English poem, for 
there Bernlak is certainly under spells when he visits the 
court, though the English author has abandoned the 
denouement of his French original, as we shall see in a 
moment. 

What was the concluding incident in the French Gawain 
and the Green Knight ? If we are not quite off the track in 
the foregoing paragraph, the question answers itself. For 
the Temptation story that the French combiner was using 
afforded him (with hardly any modification) a perfectly 
satisfactory catastrophe: having fulfilled all the tests, the 
Host asks Gawain to behead him (as a regular means of des- 
troying the enchanted body) . When this is done, he stands 
up in his true shape as a comely knight, thanks his deliverer, 
explains his extraordinary actions, and accompanies Gaw^ain 
to court, where Arthur makes him a knight of the Round 
Table. 

No doubt the French combiner omitted the final un- 
spelling decapitation, for to retain it would have caused a 
ludicrous multiplication of beheadings, and, though common 
enough as the last act in an unspelling process,^ it was by no 
means indispensable. Probably, after Gawain had accepted 
the (harmless) return-blow, Bernlak, freed from enchant- 
ment, at once resumed the shape which he had worn at the 
castle, explained the whole matter, and returned to his 

1 Pp. 200 ff. 



THE COMBINED PLOT I17 

castle with Gawain.^ Then, doubtless, after receiving the 
thanks of the lady as well as of her lord, Gawain returned to 
court, taking Bernlak and his wife with him. There Bernlak 
was received into the fellowship of the Round Table, and 
consented to hold his lands as Arthur's vassal. 

For an ending of this sort we have not only the direct 
evidence of the Carl, but the concurrent testimony of almost 
countless examples — in a word, we have the support of a 
convention as solidly grounded as any that is prevalent in 
Arthurian romance. Instances from the Perceval alone are 
Guiromelant,^ Brun de Branlant,^ Le Riche Sodoier,^ 
Ambioris,^ Li Biaus Mauvais,^ and Garsalas.^ In some of 
these cases, moreover, there is unquestionably disenchant- 
ment — notably in the story of Li Biaus Mauvais and 
Rosete, his hideous amie, who afterwards became one of 
the lovehest ladies of the court. 

We may, then, feel pretty confident, (i) that in the 
version of the Temptation used by the author of the French 
Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain's entertainer was (as 
in the Carl of Carlisle) under spells which transformed him 
to a huge and monstrous shape, and that the final act in his 
disenchantment was (as in the Carl) decapitation by 
Gawain; (2) that, in this same version, the unspelled giant, 
returning to the form and stature of a normal man, was (as 
in the Carl) recruited to Arthur's company; (3) that the 
author of the French Gawain preserved both the disen- 

^ We are at liberty to imagine, if we wish, that Bernlak vaulted over the 
brook again after the final blow, returned to the cave, and came forth in his 
proper guise. But this is a detail of which nobody can be certain; for 
immediate transformation before the face and eyes of the hero is a common 
incident in unspelling stories. Besides, it is quite possible that the hollow 
mound is the English poet's addition to the tale (see p. 142). 

2 Vv. ii56ofiF. ^ Vv. 19411 ff. 6 Vv. 256075. 

3 Vv. 12437 ff. ^ Vv. 23554 ff. ^ Vv. 276995. 



Il8 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

chantment and the recruiting, but dropped the unspelling 
decapitation near the close; and (4) that the EngKsh poet 
omitted both the disenchantment and the recruiting. 

The English poem, indeed, shows plain traces of innovation 
in the denouement. The catastrophe leaves Gawain, in a 
manner, discomfited. He returns to court full of shame, and 
Arthur comforts him by decreeing that all the knights of the 
Round Table shall wear the green lace as part of their in- 
signia. Such touches are dehghtful, but contrary to custom, 
for the old French poets are loath to let Gawain come off 
from any adventure without the highest credit. It would 
have been far better, from their point of view, to send him 
home in triumph with the emancipated Bernlak in his train. 
Other changes introduced by the EngUsh author at the close 
will be mentioned presently. 

The substantial accuracy of the inferences just enumer- 
ated is further supported by the testimony of an extremely 
curious Middle English romance, The Turk and Gawain, 
which has never had the attention it merits. 

The Turk and Gawain 

The Turk and Gawain is preserved in the Percy Folio only. 
The text is poor, and the poem has suffered sadly from 
the mutilation of the manuscript. These facts may partly 
account for the neglect which so interesting a piece has 
experienced at the hands of scholars, but they create no 
presumption against the age or significance of the story. 
Gaston Paris vouchsafes it but six lines (in a footnote), and 
ascribes it to the sixteenth century.^ There is, however, 
absolutely no reason for assigning so recent a date except 
the lateness of the manuscript, and we should remember 

1 Histoire Litter aire de la France, XXX, 68. 



THE TURK AND GAWAIN 1 19 

that the Percy Folio contains, amongst other old material, a 
copy of the short version of Launfal, a poem used by 
Thomas Chestre in the fourteenth century. We need not 
hesitate, despite the condition of the extant text, to push the 
date of The Turk and Gawain itself back into this same 
century, or to the beginning of the fifteenth, at the latest. 

Despite the mutilation of the manuscript, the plot is easy 
to follow, for the context and the general run of the narra- 
tive enable us to fill the lacunae with confidence. In the 
following summary, these gaps are indicated by brackets. 
Each gap is of half a page — about six stanzas, or thirty- 
six lines. 1 

A dwarf {Turk), " not high but broad," enters Arthur's hall while 
the king is at meat, and asks if there is any one present so hardy as 
" to give a buffet and take another." Kay replies insultingly and is 
reproved by Gawain. The Turk calls upon " the better of you two " 
to come on. [Gawain gives the buffet, apparently on the understand- 
ing that he shall go away with the Turk and receive the return blow 
elsewhere.] The Turk promises that the buffet shall be well paid, and 
that (to boot) ere Gawain sees the court again, he shall be as well 
frightened as ever man was. Gawain protests that he is quite ready 
to go with the Turk; he wiU never flee, he declares, from any ad- 
venture. 

They ride 2 northward two days and more, and Gawain has great 
need of meat and drink. At length the Turk leads Gawain into a hill, 
which opens to receive them and closes behind them. They experience 
frightful weather. [After a time they come in sight of a castle. As 
they approach, the Turk gives Gawain certain instructions, among 
them an injunction that, if addressed, he is to] make no answer except 
to him alone. 

They enter the castle, which is splendidly furnished. Nobody is to 
be seen, but a board stands ready spread with " all manner of meats 
and drinks." Gawain, quite famished, is on the point of falling to, 
but the Turk restrains him, and brings forth safe food. Gawain eats 
and drinks, and then begs the Turk to give him the buffet and let 
him go. [The Turk refuses, and they continue their journey. They 
come to the seashore], embark in a boat, and sail to a place where they 

^ See pp. 296-297. 2 In v. 79 it is said that the Turk has no horse. 



I20 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

see a fine castle, in which dwells, says the Turk, a heathen soldan, 
the King of Man, and with him a hideous rout of ugly giants. He 
foretells strange adventures, but promises to stand by Gawain. 

[They enter the presence of the king himself, who is feasting in the 
hall.] He makes a speech, expressing hatred for Arthur and all his 
company, but invites Gawain (by name) to take his seat at the table. 
Gawain declines: it is not proper for a knight errant to be seated in a 
king's hall before adventures are seen. The king then calls for his 
tennis-ball, and with it come a hideous rout of seventeen giants, who 
think to beat out Gawain's brains. The ball is of brass and there is 
no man in England able to carry it. [Gawain is challenged to play 
at tennis, but the Turk, who is called his " boy," undertakes the game 
and worsts the giants. The second game is casting] the axle-tree, at 
which the giants are likewise discomfited by the Turk. A great 
brazier stands in the hall. One of the giants lifts it and sets it down 
Gawain's boy then seizes it and swings it round his head, so that the 
coals and red brands [fly about. . . . The king declares that] he has 
slain many a knight who has come hither, — none ever went back to 
tell the tale, — and now he will slay Gawain. 

The Turk is wearing a garment of invisibihty (though apparently 
he has hitherto been in plain sight) . The king leads Gawain to a place 
where there is a boiling cauldron, tended by a giant with a fork. The 
Turk seizes the giant and throws him in, holding him down with the 
fork until he is scalded to death. Then Gawain gives the king his 
choice between death and Christianity, but he spits upon the knight, 
and the Turk throws him into the fire. " Now," says the Turk, " all 
the peril is past." [The Turk then gives Gawain the bufifet, but so 
lightly as not to hurt him.] The Turk brings forth a golden basin and 
takes a sword, bidding Gawain strike off his head and let his blood 
run into the basin. Gawain demurs, but the Turk insists and he 
beheads him. As soon as the blood Hghts in the basin, the Turk stands 
up a stalwart knight, sings Te Deum, and thanks Gawain warmly. 
Gawain and the transformed Turk set free many captives, including 
seventeen ladies. [Gawain and Sir Gromer (for this is the Turk's 
name) return to Arthur's court with the ladies], who are restored to 
their husbands. Sir Gromer asks Arthur to make Gawain King of 
Man, but Gawain declines the office and Arthur grants the island to 
Gromer. 

However much our text of The Turk and Gawain may 
have suffered from slovenly copyists and the accidents of 
time, the plot is immediately recognizable as belonging to a 



THE TURK AND GAWAIN 121 

well-known type of popular tale. A mdrchen (perhaps 
Celtic) has been, doubtless at an early date, fitted out, like 
so many others, with the paraphernalia of Arthurian 
romance. The tone is simple and uncourtly, and the poem 
shows no trace of the refining hand of Chretien's school. 
Some of the rudeness may be due to the English author or 
redactor, who was certainly addressing a rather humble 
audience, but, if this is the case, his changes merely re- 
stored the romance to a closer likeness to its original form. 
For we know that even the most carefully polished Arthu- 
rian romances retain traces enough of the ruder material out 
of which they are wrought — material which, whatever its 
origin, was quite consonant with the state of society de- 
picted in Middle Irish literature. It is not necessary to 
maintain that the source of The Turk and Gawain was a 
Celtic tale. For our present purposes this is a matter of 
indifference. Yet such a contention would be hard to 
oppose, and I have little doubt of its correctness. There is 
no reason to postulate an intermediary French version. ^ 

In the general type of tale to which The Turk and Gawain 
belongs, the hero, visiting a giant or the like, is forced to 
undertake a number of impossible tasks, but comes off in 
triumph by the aid of one or more supernaturally gifted 
companions. Specifically, the little romance belongs to the 
more limited type in which the companion or companions 
perform the tasks instead of the hero himself. A further 
limitation consists in the fact that the attendant is be- 
spelled to an ugly shape, and that the accomplishment of the 
adventure effects his disenchantment. All these varieties 
are abundant in popular fiction. The introductory incident, 
with the challenge to a game of pluck-buffet, serves to em- 
bark the hero on the adventurous journey which is to free 

1 P. 274. 



122 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

the enchanted person. In this point, too, the story is true- 
bred, for a match of some kind which the hero loses to a 
supernatural opponent, is often the occasion of his setting 
out on a perilous adventure. ^ The beheading at the end is 
the final act in the unspelling process. 

In such marchen the hero usually gets a reward for him- 
self: the treasures of the giant or enchanter fall to his lot, 
and he wins a wife as well. Traces of these features may 
still be detected in the English romance. Sir Gromer wishes 
Arthur to grant Gawain the kingdom of Man, after the 
death of the " soudan," but Gawain magnanimously de- 
clines it. Among the ladies who are freed from captivity 
may well have been, in the source, the sister of the hero's 
bespelled companion. She disappeared, perhaps, when the 
story was attached to Gawain, whom, as we have already 
observed, the romancers were disincHned to involve in any 
permanent liaison. Compare the way in which the author 
of the Chevalier a VEpee contrives to get rid of the damsel 
whom Gawain has won at the castle.^ 

The Turk and Gawain is particularly interesting in the 
present investigation. The Turk, like the Carl of Carlisle, 
is a knight condemned by enchantment to wear a hideous 
figure; like the Carl he is freed from the ban by decapitation 
at the hands of the hero after previous tests have been ful- 
filled; like the Carl he becomes Arthur's vassal. In these 
points the Turk and Gawain also resembles that form of the 
Temptation story which was used by the author of the 
French Gawain and the Green Knight. All this, however, 
would add little to the strength of the contention that these 
three features formed a part of the Temptation story in 
question, were it not for the fact that the Turk shows a 
special resemblance to Gawain and the Green Knight in a very 
1 See pp. 137-138, 196-197. 2 p^ g2. 



THE TURK AND GAWAIN 123 

remarkable matter: the Turk appears at Arthur's court 
with a challenge to an exchange of buffets.^ He is to stand 
a buffet on tliis occasion, and his smiter is to allow him to 
repay it. The course of the story shows that the return- 
blow is not to be given on the spot, but that Gawain is to 
leave the court with the Turk and receive it at some place to 
him unknown. This incident is identical to all intents and 
purposes with the Challenge. Now, we have seen that the 
Challenge was utilized by the author of the French Gawain 
and the Green Knight as a means of getting Gawain to the 
castle of Bernlak, where the [unspelling] Temptation was to 
be undergone. Similarly, in The Turk and Gawain, the 
challenge to pluck-buffet is the means used by the bespelled 
Sir Gromer ( the Turk) to get Gawain to the castle where 
the tasks preliminary to his own disenchantment must be 
performed. The mutilation of the Percy MS. — to light 
fires — has deprived us of an account of the return-blow. 
The natural place for it is just before the Turk brings out a 
basin and asks Gawain to decapitate him, and there is a gap 
in the manuscript there. We must suppose that, after the 
King of Man is dead, the Turk claims the return-blow from 
Gawain, that Gawain immediately assents, and that the 
Turk spares him or strikes liim gently. The danger is quite 
as great as in Gawain and the Green Knight. The buffet, if 
given in earnest, would certainly have dashed out Gawain' s 
brains, for the Turk is far stronger than any of the Manx 
giants. Gawain' s faithfulness to his word is a condition of 
the disenchantment, and the Turk is now^ ready for the final 
act. Accordingly, he asks Gawain to cut off his head, and 
when this is done, immediately stands up a fair knight. 

We have, then, in The Turk and Gawain, a disenchant- 
ment story containing a close parallel to the Challenge to 

^ See p. 221. 



124 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

decapitation, utilizing that incident for the same purpose for 
which Gawain and the Green Knight utilizes it, and winding 
up with disenchantment by decapitation and with the 
reception of the unspelled monster as one of Arthur's 
vassals. 

Professor Hales believed that the author of The Turk 
derived the incident of the Challenge from the English 
Gawain and the Green Knight,^ but I see no reason for sup- 
posing that he drew^ from that poem rather than from its 
French original. Indeed, it is quite possible that he picked 
up the Irish story in traditional circulation in his own half- 
Celtic neighborhood. If he did have recourse to the French 
Gawain, his poem is more or less usable as evidence that in 
that version, as we have already inferred upon other 
grounds, the denouement consisted in the disenchanting of 
Bernlak and his reception into the fellowship of the Round 
Table or among the number of Arthur's vassals. If, on the 
other hand, we prefer to think that the author of The Turk 
drew from one of the episodical French poems of the Chal- 
lenge (O or R) or from current tradition in his own locality, 
we have at least a tolerably good instance of the same 
procedure that we have observed in the construction of the 
plot of Gawain and the Green Knight. The Challenge, origi- 
nally Irish, is combined with another story to frame an 
Arthurian romance in which the challenger is under spells, 
in which he uses the '' game " as a means of getting his 
rescuer to the place necessary for disenchantment, and in 
which, finally, he becomes Arthur's vassal as soon as he is 
released from spells. In this case, the parallelism between 
the Turk and our reconstruction of the lost French Gawain 
and the Green Knight shows that we have used a sound 
method in that reconstruction. 

^ Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, I, 88. 



THE GREEN KNIGHT 1 25 

Everything seems to point, then, to the conclusion at 
which we had arrived, on the evidence of the Carl of Car- 
lisle, before we began to examine The Turk and Gawain. 
If the French Gawain and the Green Knight is ever dis- 
covered, we may expect it to represent the challenger as 
released from enchantment by Gawain's successful adven- 
ture, as accompanying his rescuer to Arthur's court, and as 
becoming a vassal of the king. 

With these facts in mind let us examine another remark- 
able romance contained — in a sadly corrupt and dis- 
ordered state — in the Percy MS. This piece is entitled 
simply The Green Knight. It extends to only about five 
hundred lines, but is almost identical in plot with the 
EngKsh Gawain and the Green Knight, of which, indeed, it 
has ordinarily been regarded as a condensed and enfeebled 
rifacimento, with all the poetry left out.^ 

The Green Knight in the Percy Manuscript 

The Green Knight's name is Sir Bredbeddle and he 
dwells in the West Country. His wife, as he is well aware, 
loves Gawain though she has never set eyes on him. Her 
mother, Agostes, is a witch who can change men's shapes, 
and she has taught Bredbeddle how to apply this art to 
himself. She advises her son-in-law to visit Arthur's court 
at Carlisle in quest of adventures; but the suggestion is 
really made for her daughter's sake, with the purpose of 
procuring Gawain's presence at the castle. Bredbeddle is 
delighted to go, for he feels some eagerness to test Gawain's 
" three points," which appear to be valor, courtesy, and 
truth. He sets out accordingly, in green armor, with a green 
weapon, and, on a green horse. [This, by the way, seems to 

^ See p. 296. 



126 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

be the full extent of the '' transposition " that he undergoes 
in our text, but there was doubtless more in the version of 
which the Percy MS. is a poor copy.^] His weapon is styled 
a " long fauchion " in v. 77, nor is anything said of an axe 
until V. 188, when Gawain seizes " the axe " to cut off the 
stranger's head in response to the challenge. The Green 
Knight's ability to replace his head is ascribed, Hke his 
" transposed " appearance, to the arts of his mother-in-law: 
^' All this was done by enchantment that the old witch had 
wrought." When the return-blow is dealt, the weapon is 
again a "fauchion" (v. 452.) The Percy text is, as this 
instance shows, much confused and somewhat defective. 
Other signs of corruption are not lacking. Thus, when the 
Green Knight issues his challenge he names the Green 
Chapel as the rendezvous (vv. 148-150), and afterwards the 
head repeats this mention of the place: — 

Saith: " Gawaine! thinke on thy couenant! 
This day 12 monthes see thou ne want 

To come to the greene chappell! " (w. 196-198). 

It is certainly better to have the Chapel mentioned but 
once, and accordingly we find in the longer EngHsh romance 
no locality specified in the initial challenge. Again, the 
bargain between Gawain and Bredbeddle is not to exchange 
their winnings, but to share them. This results in an 
absurd contradiction at the end,^ for Gawain certainly does 
share his gains with his host, even if he retains the lace, so 
that it is unjust to accuse him of not keeping his word. The 
three hunts are reduced to one, from which Bredbeddle 
brings home hinds, does, wild swine, foxes, " and other 
ravine." By a similar process of telescoping, Sir Bredbeddle 

1 See w. 49-60, 73-84, 92-105, 337-342, 442-444- 

2 Noted by Furnivall, Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, II, 77. 



THE GREEN KNIGHT 1 27 

is made to deal but one return-blow, inflicting a slight 
wound. The two preliminary feints or interrupted strokes 
are omitted. This corresponds with the fact that Gawain's 
stay at the castle lasts only one day, and that he has there- 
fore been tempted by the lady but once. It was on that 
occasion that he received the three kisses and also the lace. 
After smiting Gawain, Sir Bredbeddle accuses him of dodg- 
ing, (''shunting"), though the narrative says nothing of 
Gawain's having shown any fear. There are other minor 
instances of corruption or disorder, and in general, it is 
evident that the Percy text is a faulty transcript, perhaps 
written down from memory. 

Most of the errors and inconsistencies just noted are 
chargeable to careless copying and the casualties of trans- 
mission, not to unskilful workmanship on the part of the 
author of the short Green Knight. If we had his poem as he 
wrote it, we should undoubtedly find it consistent with 
itself, and we should recognize the plot as identical in almost 
every incident with that of the long EngHsh romance. Two 
theories are schematically possible: (i) that the author 
used as his source the long EngHsh romance, which he 
shortened and attempted to popularize; (2) that his source 
was the French Gawain and the Green Knight, now lost, 
which he reproduced in most particulars, though with a few 
changes and a certain amount of condensation. The first 
alternative may seem the easier hypothesis, but the second 
deserves consideration. 

In the first place, we should not be much influenced by the 
lateness of the Percy Folio. That is not necessarily signifi- 
cant as to the age of any piece that the manuscript happens 
to contain, as is conclusively proved by the facts in the case 
of Sir Lamhwell} 

1 See p. 86. 



128 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Secondly, there is no antecedent general probability that 
any given Middle English poem goes back to an English 
rather than a French original. Indeed, the contrary is 
rather more likely a priori. Nor is it surprising to find two 
or more independent EngHsh versions of a single French 
work. The Old French Octavian is extant in two English 
versions, a Northern and a Southern, neither of them 
derived from the other. There are three EngHsh versions 
of Hue de Rotelande's Ipomedon. Both Gower and Chaucer 
utilized the legend of Constance in Nicholas Trivet's Anglo- 
Norman chronicle. Additional examples will occur to every 
student. 

Thirdly, the mere lack, in the Percy Green Knight, of 
many details of the long romance, is not even presumptive 
evidence in favor of the derivation of the shorter version 
from the longer. The short Green Knight is probably a con- 
densed version of something, but why may it not be con- 
densed from the French as well as from the English ? 
Besides, in some instances the phenomena may not be due 
to omission at all. 

The most cursory reading of Gawain and the Green Knight 
makes one thing plain to anybody who is at all familiar with 
the Old French episodical romances of Sir Gawain. The 
Middle English masterpiece is not a translation in any 
proper sense of the term. It must be utterly different in 
style and poetic manner from the lost French poem on 
which it is based, for in these particulars it bears no resem- 
blance to anything in French literature. It marks the 
culmination of a development of style and poetic manner 
that is peculiar to England and to a certain part of England 
(the West Midland and Northern district), just as it marks 
the culmination of a kind of metrical development similarly 
limited in geographical scope. Furthermore, the English 



THE GREEN KNIGHT 1 29 

author has an individuality which distinguishes him from 
other English writers belonging to what we may vaguely 
call the same " school." 

These observations are so patent that no one will dispute 
them; and if we bear them in mind, we cannot fail to under- 
stand the treatment which the French Gawain and the Green 
Knight must have received at the hands of the great anony- 
mous West Midland poet of the fourteenth century. He 
followed the plot with substantial faithfulness, as we have 
aheady seen; but he elaborated every detail of description 
with a richness of fancy quite foreign to the sober narrative 
style of his original, he gave Hfe to the personages and 
vividness to the action, and he inspired the whole with an 
ethical earnestness that ennobles the tale without making 
it less romantic. The Frenchman was a first-rate raconteur 
who combined two independent stories into a single plot 
with a high degree of constructive ability, and he was 
master of a flowing and limpid style exquisitely adapted to 
straightforward story-telling. The Englishman was an 
idealist and a true poet, who saw, in the capital story which 
his French predecessor had told so acceptably, the possibil- 
ity of illustrating the finest traits of the mediaeval gentleman, 
who controlled an elaborate and difficult poetical technique 
in such a way as to make it a natural vehicle not merely for 
the description in which he delighted but for dramatic action 
as well, and who built up, on the basis of the excellent 
French romance, which was on a par with mmierous others 
quite as good and quite as well-told, a unique masterpiece 
in the grandiose manner. 

Among the characteristic passages which were certainly 
added or greatly elaborated by the English author are: — 
the learned introductory stanza summarizing the fabulous 
settlements of Western Europe and mentioning the Siege of 



I30 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGH?' 

Troy, iEneas, Romulus, "Ticius" of Tuscany, Langobard 
of Lombardy, and Felix Brutus of Britain; the description 
of the Christmas festivities (i, 3) and that of the Green 
Knight (i, 7-9); the challenge (i, 12-13) ^^^ ^^^ speech of 
Gawain (i, 16) ; the highly poetical stanzas on the changing 
seasons (ii, 1-2); the very elaborate description of the 
process of arming a knight (ii, 4-6), with the allegorical 
account of the pentangle of virtues (ii, 7) ; Gawain's itiner- 
ary, — Logres, North Wales, Anglesea, Holyhead, the 
wilderness of Wirral (ii, 9) ; the winter piece (ii, 10) ; the 
justly celebrated account of the three hunts (iii, i ff .) . 

The list is far from exhaustive, but it will suffice to illus- 
trate the freedom with which the English poet treated his 
French source. All such elaborations are lacking in the 
Percy version. But this is no argument for the derivation 
of the Percy version from the EngHsh Gawain. Derive it 
from the French Gawain, and the conditions in this regard 
are well satisfied, since the details in question were certainly 
not found in the French. 

Finally, there is one incident in the Percy version, but not 
in the long EngKsh romance, which was doubtless found in 
the French original: the Green Knight, after the fulfilment 
of the beheading compact, accompanies Gawain to Arthur's 
court, and inferentially becomes the king's vassal. Such a 
correspondence, it is true, is not enough to estabhsh the 
derivation of the Percy version from the lost French Gawain, 
since the feature in question is a commonplace which could 
easily be added by the author of the short Green Knight out 
of his own general stock of romantic knowledge. 

So far the case for a derivation of the short Green Knight 
from the French Gawain rather than from the long English 
romance, looks plausible or more than plausible. But we 
must weigh the alternative before we pass judgment. 



THE GREEN KNIGHT 13 1 

First, there are a good many resemblances in phraseology 
between the two English poems, — quite enough of them 
not merely to outweigh the argument from recruiting (the 
only positive evidence we have noted for the derivation of 
the Percy version from the French), but also to leave a con- 
siderable margin in favor of immediate derivation from the 
longer English version. Many of these parallels are no 
doubt commonplaces; others might be explained as literal 
translations. But when all deductions have been made, the 
table of verbal similarities (pp. 282 ff., below) still gives 
valuable testimony for the thesis that the shorter Green 
Knight is condensed from the longer English version, not 
from the French original. 

Secondly, the Percy text contains several pretty obvious 
remnants of passages that were not in the French at all but 
owe their existence to the elaborating hand of the great 
English romancer. Such remnants concern the arming of 
Gawain and Gringolet (No. 21 in the table), the account of 
wolves and wonders encountered by the hero en route 
(No. 22), particulars of the deer-hunt (No. 28), and the 
whetting of the Green Knight's weapon (No. 33).^ These 
passages are almost enough to settle the question. 

Thirdly, we must consider the presence at Bernlak's castle 
of an ancient and highly honored lady whose magic arts are 
the moving cause of the Green Knight's expedition and 
therefore of the entire plot. 

There is no such character in either the Challenge or the 
Temptation. She is certainly an addition to the story. The 
question is: At what stage of its development did she first 
appear ? In the long English romance a full account of her 
is given when Bernlak unties all the knots for Gawain's 
benefit and the reader's. She is ^' Morgne la Fay," 

1 See pp. 57-58. 



132 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

" Morgne the Goddess," King Arthur's half-sister and 
Gawain's aunt, the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of 
Tintagel; we are also informed that she was Merlin's mis- 
tress.i This genealogical excursus may be unhesitatingly 
credited to the English author, who was a man of learning 
and well acquainted with the ins and outs of the fully 
developed Arthurian saga: it can hardly have stood in his 
French original. Furthermore, Bernlak informs Gawain 
that it was Morgan who set the machinery in motion. She 
sent him to Arthur's court in strange guise to challenge the 
knights to the beheading game. Her object was to cause 
Guinevere to die of terror : — 

" For to have grieved Gaynor and made her to die 
With fear of that wight that spake in ghastly fashion, 
With his head in his hand, before the high table." 

This, too, I think, must be ascribed to the Englishman alone. 
He knew of the traditional hatred of Morgan the Fay for 
Guinevere, and it occurred to him to turn it to account for 
the moving cause of his whole romance. Perhaps he was 
somewhat influenced by that form of the tale of the Magic 
Horn which represents Morgan as sending the talisman to 
court with the design of revealing Guinevere's unfaithful- 
ness.2 We note, besides, that the motive in question is not 
well worked into the fabric of the story. Not only is the 
Fay's trick a failure, but there is no indication, in our 
author's own description of the scene at court, that Guine- 
vere showed any particular alarm: certainly she was in no 
danger of death from shock. Besides, one is rather sur- 
prised that Gawain should part with Bernlak on such 
cordial terms after the blunt avowal of his evil errand. 

1 Vv. 2446 £f. 

2 So in the prose Tristan, Loseth, p. 39 (cf. Child, Ballads, I, 265; Miss 
Paton, Fairy Mythology y pp. 104 ff.). 



THE GREEN KNIGHT 1 33 

It is safe, I should suppose, to infer that we are here deal- 
ing with a substitution. In the French Gawain the moving 
cause of the whole plot, as we have already seen, was Bern- 
lak's desire to be disenchanted, a motive retained from the 
Temptation story. In the Temptation, however (and 
consequently in the French Gawain), the originator of the 
spells was either nameless (as often), or at best was nobody 
who had a status among the dramatis personae of the sys- 
tematized Arthurian legend. Now our English author 
shows at the beginning and at the close of his poem (in 
passages that are surely his own) a distinct desire to attach 
his narrative to the orthodox Arthur saga, referring to the 
" Brutus Books " as his written source.^ As a means to this 
end, no doubt, he decided to make Morgan the Fay the 
" only begetter " of the whole affair, at the same time 
identifying her with that other famous enchantress, Niniane, 
the mistress of MerHn. But if Morgan was to be the 
wonder-worker in the mysterious background, — if it was 
to be Morgan that sent Bernlak to court in strange guise 
with his axe in his hand, — the object of the visit could no 
longer be his disenchantment. That purpose had to dis- 
appear when she became herself the weaver of the spell. 
Another reason had to be imagined, and our author found it 
in Morgan's enmity toward the queen, which, indeed, was 
in his mind an inseparable trait of her traditional character. 

For using Morgan the Fay the English poet may have 
found a suggestion in his French original. For it is far from 
unlikely that Bernlak's household included an ancient dame 
who held, perhaps, some more or less tutelary office with 
regard to the lady of the castle, or may even have been 
(though less probably) her mother. One remembers the 
enchanted castle in Chretien's Perceval, where Gawain 
1 V. 2523 (cf. vv. 1-36). 



134 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

achieved the adventure of the Perilous Bed. Here live 
three queens, all under spells, from which they are released 
by Gawain. Later he learns that one of them, an old lady 
" with gray tresses," is Arthur's mother; that the second is 
her daughter. King Lot's widow, and consequently his own 
mother; and that the third is his sister Clarissant, of whom 
he has never heard.^ Be that as it may, we must ascribe the 
presence of Morgan, as I have said, to the learned ingenuity 
of the English romancer, and likewise, of course, her role as 
the setter-in-motion of the entire plot. 

Now Morgan appears also, in the same capacity of " close 
contriver of all harms," in the short Green Knight. She has 
lost both nomen and numen, — and has acquired instead 
the eccentric name Agostes (doubtless a corruption for 
something or other) and the character of a mere witch and 
procuress — the Green Knight's mother-in-law, who can 
transform men and has taught him the art of shape-shifting. 
But she still remains the motive-power of the whole trans- 
action. It is she who despatches the Green Knight to 
court, and it is by virtue of her charms that he is enabled to 
pick up his head and put it back on his shoulders: " All this 
was done by enchantment that the old witch had wrought! " 

So striking a correspondence between the two English 
poems in a feature that was certainly absent from the 
French Gawain, must, in all reason, decide for us the ques- 
tion as to the source of the short Green Knight. It is un- 
doubtedly a condensed rijacimento of the long English 
romance. 

True, it might conceivably be argued, since the French 

Gawain may have included in Bernlak's menage an elderly 

lady-in-waiting, that the two English poets developed this 

character without collusion, each in his own way, equipping 

1 Vv. 10095 ff. (Potvin, III, 31-32). 



THE GREEN KNIGHT 135 

her with magical powers and elevating her to the rank of 
mistress of the situation. 

Such a theory, though pretty hazardous, would doubtless 
be admissible, at a pinch. We should be driven to accept it, 
perhaps, if there were strong reasons for beHeving that the 
short Green Knight was derived from the French original of 
the long English romance rather from the English romance 
itself. But there are no such strong reasons. Indeed, there 
are no reasons at all, except the agreement of the Percy text 
with the French Gawain (against the EngHsh) in the chal- 
lenger's final submission to the king; and this trait, as every- 
body knows, is a mere commonplace of Arthurian story, 
and its testimony is much more than counterbalanced by 
the verbal resemblances between the two English poems. 
Even before we began to consider the ancient lady, we saw 
that the balance of probabilities was heavily on the side of 
deriving the shorter English romance from the longer, both 
on account of these resemblances and because of several 
points in which the Percy version appears to go back to 
something that stands in the English Gawain but was surely 
not in the French. All this being so, we cannot hesitate in 
coming to a decision. The Green Knight of the Percy Folio 
is merely a condensation of the English Gawain and the 
Green Knight, with a few changes introduced by the con- 
denser and a crop of later errors chargeable to Adam 
Scrivener and defects of memory. 

It has recently been argued ^ that the Percy Green Knight 
keeps an old feature of the legend — namely, the love of the 
knight's lady for Gawain, whom she has never seen, — that 
the lady is, in fact, the fee of the Fairy Mistress myth, and 
her husband merely the Jee^s agent and summoner. From 
this point of view, the short romance has been used as an 
1 Hulbert, Modern Philology, XIII, 49 ff . 



136 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

important document in settling the history or mythology of 
the beheading game and of the temptation at Bernlak's 
castle. 

It must now be clear that the poem in the Percy Folio has 
no evidential value for such purposes. The love of the lady 
for Gawain and her employment of her husband as a pandar 
are alterations in the plot — alterations made by the 
rhymer who condensed the English romance. They are not 
traits that came down to him in the story by a long line of 
tradition. 

Under these circumstances, we are not bound to explain 
the rh3aner's motive in thus changing the plot, beyond 
ascribing it to his sic volo, sic iubeo. But since a further 
explanation is easy, it may as well be given. Our rhymer 
disapproved of the object assigned in his source to Bernlak's 
visit to court. No wonder: every reader finds it unsatisfac- 
tory. It is the one weak spot in the superb English romance. 
Disapproving of it, he had to provide a substitute; and this 
he did, not by straining his imagination, but by adopting 
one of the most familiar of all Arthurian donnees — the lady 
who loves Gawain without having seen him. I have styled 
this convention one of the most familiar conventions in 
Arthurian story. I might have said one of the best known 
in all literature. "C'est la un trait que se rencontre dans 
nombre de fictions romanesques depuis la plus haute 
antiquite." 

Be that as it may, it was a trait with which the rhymer 
was well acquainted, and it served his turn. The other 
changes almost made themselves. Morgan the Fay became 
the witch-lady (indeed, but for her name, she is hardly more 
in the longer poem) and annexed the role of procuress — a 
character quite as common as need be, both in the life and 
in the literature of the middle ages. VoiU tout! 



CONCLUSION 137 

Conclusion 

The genial Frenchman who made the plot of Gawain and 
the Green Knight by combining two entirely independent 
stories, the Challenge and the Temptation, was of course a 
Pasha of Many Tales; for he was well acquainted with the 
machinery of Arthurian romance, and fairy stories of the 
nursery were part of his birthright. Equally of course, he 
was influenced as he worked, now by one feature of romance 
or mdrchen, now by another, precisely as a modern writer of 
fiction, whatever the main source or sources of his plot, is 
influenced by the conventional donnees of novel-writing, — 
the forged or stolen will, the supposititious child, the false 
accusation, the wandering heir, the scheming adventuress, 
the grand old gardener and his wife, the crash in speculation, 
the oppressive magnate, the unpractical inventor with his 
strange device to revolutionize some industry. And, in 
particular, our clever Frenchman had always present in his 
mind those old types of the folk-tale which we never fail to 
find whenever we open a book of such things. Thus, as his 
combined plot took shape under his hand, it was inevitable 
that it should conform to some t3q)e or other, partly because 
of the nature of the material, which was itself mdrchenhaft, 
partly because of the stock of ideas which stored his mind. 

We are not astonished, therefore, to find that the finished 
product, taken as a whole, accords in its main outhnes with 
a definite type of mdrchen to which neither of its chief com- 
ponents, the Challenge and the Temptation, belongs. This 
type is as follows: — The hero is challenged to play a game 
by a mysterious visitant, with life as the stake, or on the 
understanding that the winner shall fix a forfeit. The 
supernatural player wins. He then requires of the hero that 
within a fixed term (commonly a year and a day) he shall 



138 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

discover his abode and there present himself, and further, 
that he shall there perform certain tasks or labors. The 
hero is of course successful, but the details of his adventures 
are not to our purpose. His achievements may or may not 
include the winning of a wife from the Other World; some- 
times, too, the story closes with the " kiss taboo " and the 
incident of the Forgotten Bride. There are many folk-tales 
that belong more or less to this class, and the varieties are 
kaleidoscopic.^ 

Two things, however, must be particulary noted with 
regard to this type of folk-tale. First, the game at the out- 
set is a mere device to get the hero into the power of the 
supernatural being. This personage means him no good, 
and his object in exacting a pledge to visit strange lands is to 
destroy him. He cannot be interpreted as a messenger 
sent by a fee to lure her chosen hero to her arms, unless one 
is willing to adopt the long ago discredited methods of the 
sun-and-cloud mythologists and ignore the plain intent 
of the whole affair. And secondly, even if the supernatural 
gamester in the folk-tales were always a jee^s messenger, 
that would mean nothing to us in our sober historical task 
of following the story of the Challenge, in almost the 
identical form in which it occurs in the Fled Bricrend, from 
Ireland to France and back again to England. For the 
challenger in the Fled Bricrend is not the emissary of a fee. 
There is no fee and no hint of 3, fee in The Champion's Bar- 
gain, and the visit of the big ugly black-clad carl is paid for 
the purpose of testing Cuchulinn's valor, not for the sake of 
embarking him for the Other World. The use of the Chal- 
lenge as a means of getting Gawain to Bernlak's castle came 
into the tale under the hands of the French author, and was 
an act of literary craftsmanship synchronous with that by 
1 See pp. 196-197. 



CONCLUSION 139 

which he wove together the Challenge and another story, 
the Temptation, that never had been united with it before. 
This Frenchman, the immediate predecessor of the English 
poet, may have got the impulse to combine from his know- 
ledge of the great class of quest- tales; or he may have 
brought his plot, as he framed and moulded it, into more or 
less conscious accord with some traditional tyipe or inherited 
idea. So be it. Such considerations are interesting, but 
they concern only a comparatively late period in the history 
of Gawain and the Green Knight. They throw no light on 
the history of the Challenge between the time when it left 
Ireland in a highly elaborated literary form (well represented 
by the extant Champion^ s Bargain), and the moment when 
it came, substantially intact, into the possession of the 
French poet who combined it with the Temptation. Inci- 
dents which this Frenchman added to the Challenge in the 
thirteenth century cannot instruct as to what it was, or what 
it meant, before he wrote, ^^ a fortiori, before he was born! 
So, too, with regard to the lace or band which Gawain 
accepts from the lady at the castle. This likewise has been 
cited as an ancient feature.^ No doubt it is ancient in one 
sense, for it is one of those protective or fortifying talismans 
in which the fancy of the folk has always delighted. Of 
course these things occur in Celtic tradition — Cuchulinn 
owned one, for instance,^ and Brandubh mac Echach, king 
of Leinster had a girdle that " was of such a nature that 
neither sickness nor trouble would seize on the side on which 
it was." ^ But so had the dwarf -king Laurin in Germanic 
saga — a belt which gave him the strength of twelve men; ^ 

* Miss Weston, Legend of Sir Gawain, pp. 101-102. 
2 Zimmer, Haupt's Zeitschrift, XXXII, 319. 

2 Compert Mongain {Conception of Morgan), chap. 27, ed. Meyer, Voyage 
of Bran, I, 69, 83). 

* Laurin, vv. 185-194 {Heldenbuck, I, 204). 



I40 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

and the Australian aborigines know of a war-girdle that 
imparts force, security, and accuracy of aim.^ That the 
Gawain of the romances should now and then acquire such 
an object ^ is inevitable, and indicates nothing whatever as 
to his original character as god or man. At all events, his 
possession of the lace in Gawain and the Green Knight is not 
an old feature of his legend, but the device of a Frenchman 
who did not find the talisman in his source. He was pro- 
ceeding, to be sure, in accordance with the general practice 
of romancers and drawing upon his own stock of traditional 
story; but his procedure is not mythological evidence. And 
it is even possible that the lace did not enter the plot until 
the EngHsh author worked up the material. Anyhow, its 
acceptance and concealment are felicitous touches, for 
Gawain is thus removed from the unnatural category of 
schematic perfection and brought within the reach of human 
understanding. 

Much has also been made by scholars, from time to time, 
of the greenness of the challenger,^ for everybody is aware 
that green is a fairy color. But this feature likewise has a 
history that can be traced. The challenger is not green in 
the Irish tale of The Champion^ s Bargain: he is a gigantic 
uncouth carl, clad in a black garment and wearing a dingy 
hide over his shoulders.^ In the next stage of the tale, the 
Anglo-Norman 0, he remained an uncouth carl, black-clad 
(as in the Irish) or black of face (as in La Mule).^ In the 
third stage, the French R, he was still of gigantic stature 
and strange aspect, but splendidly attired in green. This 
we know from the Caradoc and the EngHsh Gawain; ^ but 
we cannot be quite certain when he himself assumed the hue 

^ Gillen, Report of Horn Expedition, Part IV, p. 182. 
2 Miss Weston, Legend of Sir Gawain, pp. 100 ff. 
^ See pp. 195 ff. ^ P. 67. 

"* See p. II. * See p. 39. 



CONCLUSION 141 

of the leaves. Certainly, however, the green tint of horse 
and man cannot antedate the stage of our story that is 
represented by R, — that is, the third stage of its literary 
history, and the second of its literary history in the French 
language. 

R, however, was apparently not much given to such outre 
variations, being chiefly concerned to render the narrative 
of O more courtly in its details. We are safest, therefore, if 
we conjecture that the greenness of the knight and his steed 
is due either to the author of the French Gawain, who did 
innovate appreciably, or to the English romancer, who 
always exercised the freedom of a man of genius. Between 
the two it is hard to choose. 

Perhaps we had better let them share the honors. There 
is a Green Knight in Malory, with whom — as with his two 
brothers the Black and the Blue Knight, and with the Red 
Knight of the Red Launds — Gareth must do battle for the 
enfranchisement of Dame Lyones. The Black Knight is 
killed, but the others join the fellowship of the Round 
Table. When this Green Knight is first seen, he is " all in 
green, both his horse and his harness "; he blows a green 
horn, wears green armor, carries a green shield, and wields a 
green lance.^ But it is abundantly evident that he is not 
green himself, — neither is his horse; and the same is true, 
mutatis mutandis, of his brothers. Where Malory got the 
episode of Gareth is unknown, but doubtless from a " French 
book,'' as he asserts. At all events, knights with trappings 
of a brilHant color are common enough in French romances. 

We may reasonably conjecture, then, that the immediate 

French original of our English poem went somewhat 

farther than R in furnishing the challenger and his steed 

with verdant paraphernalia, but that, for the extension of 

^ Mort Dartkur, vii, 8 (Sommer, I, 223). 



142 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

this hue to face, hair, beard, and eyebrows, and to the 
horse's mane and hide, we are indebted to the English poet. 
To him also, with complete certainty, is to be credited the 
superb description of the Green Chapel and the surrounding 
landscape, with its rocks and crags, and the roaring torrent 
over which the Green Knight vaults when he comes out of 
the hollow mound. Nothing like this is found in any extant 
French romance, and it is in the highest degree improbable 
that such picturesque details were present in the French 
Gawain. The EngHsh poet was describing a scene that he 
knew, not cop)dng from a manuscript. The Green Chapel 
is undoubtedly a fairy mound, but it is a fairy mound which 
the Englishman had often visited, — a haunted barrow in 
his own country. If it is Celtic, that is because the home of 
the English poet lay in a region still peopled with creatures 
of the Celtic imagination, still haunted — as it is to a less 
extent to-day — with Celtic thoughts and Celtic fancies. 

We are not to reconstruct the Irish original on the 
strength of additions made by French or English writers, 
even if those additions have their roots in Celtic lore. 
Indeed, we are not to reconstruct the Irish original at all, 
for we have it, substantially intact, in The Champion's Bar- 
gain. The Green Knight in the English poem comes out of 
a fairy mound to welcome Gawain, and there are fairy 
mounds in Ireland and in Irish saga, — but there is no fairy 
mound in that particular Irish tale from which the Chal- 
lenge in Gawain and the Green Knight descends in a direct 
and traceable line of strictly literary tradition. 

Our starting point for this study lies not in the misty mid- 
region of Weir, not in the pan-Celtic Cloudcuckooland of 
myth and speculative folk-lore — pleasant countries, where 
I like to wander as well as anyone. It is just as fixed and 
definite as the point of our destination. We begin with The 



CONCLUSION 143 

Champion^ s Bargain, an Irish tale in a carefully elaborated 
literary form, preserved in a manuscript of about the year 
1 100. We end with Gawain and the Green Knight, an English 
romance in a carefully elaborated literary form, preserved 
in a manuscript of about 1400. Those points in which the 
latter document differs from the former are changes — 
additions, subtractions, or modifications. The questions 
are, with regard to each of them : Who made the change — 
the Englishman or one of his predecessors ? and, if one of his 
predecessors, which one? These questions I have done my 
best to answer. 



PART II 
ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL 



I. THE RETURNING OR SURVIVING HEAD 

The Challenge, or Beheading Game, in its simplest shape 
and even in some of its more developed forms, is a mere test 
of valor, like so many other encounters with uncanny beings 
in the mythology and heroic saga of every nation. Let us 
see if we can get some idea of the primitive character of the 
mysterious and gigantic challenger. 

Originally he is a savage creature, quite outside the pale 
of humanity, inimical to mortals and destroying all men who 
cross his path. To every hero who comes into contact with 
him he allows the first stroke. This is deKvered with an 
effect that is expected to slay the monster, but he is un- 
harmed; his head returns to his shoulders (or he replaces it), 
and he then decapitates his opponent, who of course suc- 
cumbs. Thus, with respect to his actions, the Green Knight 
is to be associated with the same general category as, for 
example, the Slavic noon-lady, who, if she catches a solitary 
human being in the fields at midday, accosts him with a long 
series of questions. If he can hold out to answer till the 
clock strikes two, her power terminates, and he escapes; 
otherwise, she beheads him with her sickle or strangles him.^ 
We have already discovered a closer parallel in the demonic 
monster of the Australian aborigines, who always offers his 
victim the first blow, presenting him with his own weapon 
for that purpose, but who, unharmed, seizes the weapon 
again and kills his baffled opponent on the spot.^ 

1 Laistner, Das Rdtsel der Sphinx, I, i ff. 2 p^ 22. 

147 



148 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Among such destructive monsters, our Green Knight 
belongs to a special class who have the curious property of 
recovering their heads after decapitation. Sometimes the 
head simply flies on again, sometimes the uncanny creature 
picks it up and replaces it. The belief in such beings en- 
circles the globe. Let us begin with Celtic examples. 

In J. F. Campbell's tale of The Sea Maiden, the hero whips 
off the crone's head with his sword. " But the sword flew 
out of his hand. And swift the crone gripped her head with 
both hands, and puts it on her neck as it was before." ^ In 
another version the hero has to fight a three-headed giant. 
He cuts off two heads (one each day). " The third head 
jumped on again as fast as it was cut off, but at last, by the 
advice of a hoodie, the cold steel of the sword was held on 
the neck till the marrow froze,^ and then the giant was 
killed." 3 Again in The Son of the Green Spring by Valour, a 
variant of The Knight of the Red Shield, an old carUn is 
beheaded by the hero. Her head *' leaps on again, he cuts 
it off again, and it flies up into the skies; he holds the sword 
on the neck, and looks up, and sees the head coming down 
and aiming at him; he leaps to one side, and the head goes 
four feet into the earth." ^ Again, in the long tale of Conall 
Gtdban, the dreagan's ^ head keeps springing on again, by 
virtue of a magic balsam, till the marrow is frozen by hold- 
ing the sword between the neck and the head.® 

In Maclnnes's tale of Manus, Manus keeps the hag's head 
and, neck apart by the same device.^ Exactly so Ceudach 

^ Popular Tales of the West Highlands, I, 83. 

2 This may possibly be a reminiscence of the widespread belief that iron 
dissolves a charm, as to which see Rhys, Celtic Folklore, Index, under " iron " 
and " fairies and iron." ' The same, I, 97. 

* The same, II, 476. ^ A big bird or griffin. ^ The same, III, 238. 

' Folk and Hero Tales, p. 367. The incident does not occur in J. F. Camp- 
bell's Manus, No. 84 (III, 350 ff.). 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 49 

and the Beast in J. G. Campbell's Lad with the Skin Cover- 
ings} So of a hag in Curtin's Myths and Folk-Lore of 
Ireland,^ though here Gilla simply " stands between '* head 
and body (when the former " jumped at " the latter and 
" tried to get its place again "*) till the body was cold. A 
liveUer case in the same collection is the adventure of 
Shaking Head. He had cut off the head of the giant, and 
" then began the greatest struggle that Shaking-head ever 
had, to keep the head from the body of the giant. The head 
fought to put itself on again, and never stopped till the body 
was dead; then it fell to the ground." ^ In MacCoolj 
Feolan, and the Mountain, there is danger that the hag's 
head may rejoin her trunk; it has to be split and thrown 
into a well.* The head speaks (like the Green Knight's), 
enjoining a task.^ 

In a tale from Ulster, the hero kills three giants to win the 
hand of a princess. After he has decapitated the first, the 
head tries to get back on the body, but he leaps between the 
two, and the body expires.^ This method of preventing 
resuscitation was really followed in ancient Ireland. It 
occurs in the Irish Life of St. Berach: nine miscreants slew 
one of the saint's monks, " and they went between his head 
and his body." ^ In a variant of the tale just cited, Ardh 6 

* The Fians, p. 262. On this tale see MacRitchie, Scots Lore, I, 389; 
Transactions of the Ossianic Society, II, 131. 2 p^ 260. 

3 Pp. 199-200, This tale has something to do with the Oriental story of 
the princess who loved a monster (see Kittredge, [Harvard] Studies and Notes 
in Philology and Literature, VIII, 250, note). Shaking Head himself is an 
example of the Grateful Dead Man (see Gerould, The Grateful Dead, 1908). 

* Cf. Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, p. 201. 
^ Curtin, Hero-Tales of Ireland, pp. 496-497. 

^ Maighdean an t-Soluis agus Sgialta Eile, Dundalk, 1913, pp. 20 ff. 

^ Chap. 29 (Brussels MS. 4190 X 4200 II f. 71) cited by Plummer, Vitae 
Sanctorum Hiherniae, I, cviii, note i (" ogus tangattar iter a chend ogus a 
cholann ")• 



ISO GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Leabharcha beheads three giants in succession, and each 
time the head attempts to return to the trunk, declaring, 
" If I could get back on the body, neither you nor the men 
of Ireland would separate it [from me]." ^ The King of Dark 
Island belongs to the same category as these giants. His 
daughter betrays to Lorcan the secret of her father's nature: 
when his head is cut off, it will circle about in the air in the 
effort to descend upon the trunk, which will remain upright 
to receive it; but if Lorcan will strike down the trunk, the 
head cannot rejoin it. Lorcan follows instructions, and the 
king is permanently disposed of .^ 

In Cur tin's Cuculin, the hero " went on his way till he 
came to Hung-up-Naked, who was hanging from a tree, his 
head on the ground near him. The Queen of the Wilder- 
ness had fastened him to the tree because he would n't marry 
her; and she said ^ If any man comes who will put your 
head on you, you '11 be free.' And she laid the injunction 
on him to kill every man who tried to pass his way without 
putting the head on him." As Cuculin passed, Hung-up- 
Naked challenged him to fight. Cuculin, " picking up the 
head, clapped it on the body " and then said he was ready to 
fight. Hung-up-Naked then became friendly. He told 
Cuculin to take the head off and put it where he found it.^ 
On his return from the adventure on which he was bound, 

1 Joseph Lloyd, Sgealaidhe Oirghiall, Dublin, Gaelic League, 1905, pp. 3-6. 
Essentially the same story occurs in Quiggin's Dialect of Donegal, Cam- 
bridge, Eng., 1906, pp. 201 iff. Cf. Hyde and Dottin, An Sgeuluidhe Gaod- 
halach, No. 30, Annales de Bretagne, XVI, 96-97; Hyde, An Sgeuluidhe 
Gaodhalach, No. 13, pp. 100-102; Ceadtach mac Fhinn as Mrinn, Gaelic 
League, Dublin, 1907, p. 20. 

2 Madra na n-Ocht gCos agus Sgealta Eile, in the Imtheachta an Oireachtais, 
1901, HI, ii, 52 ff. 

3 Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, pp. 317-318. The episode of Hung- 
up-Naked is also found (apparently in better shape, and without the head- 
incident) in Blaiman, Son of Apple (Curtin, Hero-Tales of Ireland, pp. 387 ff.). 



THE RETURNING HEAD 151 

Cuculin took down the trunk, put on the head, struck 
Hung-up-Naked with a magic rod which he had obtained, 
" and made the finest looking man of him that could be 
found. The man went back to his own home happy and 
well." 1 

Sometimes the motif that we are studying is combined 
with the belief in Disenchantment by Decapitation, to which 
we shall return in a subsequent chapter.^ This combination 
takes place in the first adventure in Art and Balor Bei- 
menach. The princess of Greece will not marry Art unless he 
brings her the head of the Gruagach of the Bungling Leaps. 
Art fights the monster thrice. The first time he beheads 
him, but the body goes down through the earth, the head 
follows, and the next day the gruagach is whole and twice 
as strong as before. The second day. Art seizes the head 
before it has time to sink into the earth and starts off with 
it toward the king's castle. On the way he meets three men 
with a headless body. Art fooHshly allows them to apply 
the gruagach's head to his trunk, and on the instant men, 
head, and body go down through the earth. The third day 
a raven carries off the head. Instructed and helped by a 
friendly old man, Art recovers the head, which he carries to 
the castle of the King of Greece. The princess consents to 
marry him, but he refuses her. Acting on the old man's 
instructions. Art carries the head back to him. " The old 
man threw the head on a body which was lying in the cabin; 
the head and the body became one, and just like the old 
man." The old man says : " The gruagach was my brother, 
and for the last three hundred years he was under the en- 
chantment of . . . the only daughter of the King of 
Greece. The princess is old, though young in appearance; 

1 Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, pp. 322-323. 

2 Pp. 200 ff. 



152 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

my brother would have killed me as quickly as he would you; 
and he was to be enchanted till you should come and cut the 
head off him, and show it to the princess, and not marry her, 
and I should do as I have done. My brother and I will stay 
here, take care of our forests, and be friends to you." ^ 

The extraordinary tale of The Bare-Stripping Hangman ^ 
presents interesting parallels. The Bare-Stripping Hang- 
man, a giant, had carried off three of the four daughters of 
the king of Lochlan. Some of the king's champions went to 
the giant's castle and found him asleep. They struck off his 
head with their swords. Two of the kemps were immedi- 
ately knocked down by a large golden eagle. The rest fled 
" But scarcely had they got outside through the gate of the 
Castle than they saw the Giant coming after them, and his 
head on him as it was before." ^ The Giant has sent word 
that he is coming for the fourth daughter in a year and a 
day. Alastir, son of the king of Ireland, undertakes to kill 
the giant, and after many adventures destroys the egg 
which contains his life. He then visits the castle, and finds 
the giant dead.^ Alastir cuts off his head and feet and carries 
them to the king's court, where he casts them into a huge 
fire. " As soon as the hair of the head was singed and the 
skin of the feet burnt, the very handsomest young man they 
ever beheld sprang out of the fire." The king recognizes 
him as his brother who was stolen in childhood.^ 

In the last two mdrchen quoted, we cannot fail to observe 
a striking resemblance to the Carl of Carlisle. The bespelled 
person is a murderous monster until he is released from 
enchantment.^ At the same time the two tales illustrate the 
peculiar accomplishment of the Green Knight. Thus we 

1 Curtin, Hero-Tales of Ireland, pp. 312 fif. 

2 Macdougall, Folk and Hero Tales, pp. 76 ff. 

' P. 87. 4 P. 110. 5 P. III. « P. 88, above. 



4 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 53 

have concrete examples of a combination very similar to 
that which we have studied in the plot of the great English 
romance.^ 

In a tale from the Scottish Highlands, Ceudach's wife is 
sitting over his body on the shore, mourning. " She was not 
long there, when she saw two men of gigantic size coming 
towards her from the sea, and the one that was coming after 
throwing the head of the one who was before him, and the 
head going on him again as before. With the astonishment 
she felt, she lifted the sword that Ceudach had saying: 
' Why should I not try the small play ? ' and threw off his 
head, when she found him alive and as well as when she 
parted from him." ^ In another version of the same tale 
" she saw a small coracle coming with two men in it, one in 
the bow and one in the stern, each with a sword throwing 
the other's head off; and when they were near the shore one 
of them said to the other, ' Look at the dead man.' . . . 
She said to them, ' Will you not try the small game of old 
on the man Ijdng here ? ' On this one of them threw the 
head off the body with his sword, and the dead man rose up 
aUve and well as before." ^ In still another variant '' the 
man in the stern had a gold apple and a silver apple, and his 
work was throwing the apples at the man in the bow. When 
he threw one of the apples at the man in the bow he knocked 
his head off, and when he threw the other apple at him he 
put his head on again." The wife borrowed the apples. 
" She threw one of the apples at her man and knocked his 
head off, and she threw the other at him, and put the head on 
him again; and he rose up alive and whole as he ever was." ^ 

1 Pp. 107 ff. 

2 J. G. Campbell, The Fians, pp. 228-229. 
^ The same, p. 267. 

* Maclnnes, Folk and Hero Tales, pp. 380-383. In Larminie's West 
Irish Folk-Tales, p. 8$, ELaytuch is brought to life by means of some leaves 



154 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

In the tale of Cael an lairainn, otherwise entitled The Clown 
in the Gray Coat (from Egerton MS. 154), the carl throws a 
handful of blackberries and meal at Cael and knocks off his 
head. " Then where the head was, thither he ran, and with 
it a second time let fly at the trunk in a way that he fastened 
it on as solid as ever it had been. The manner of him now, 
however, was with face to his back, his poll to his chest." ^ 
The apples in Ceudach suggest those which make horns grow 
and take them off again, as in Dekker's Old Fortunatus ^ and 
the folk-book of Fortunatus^ Sons; ^ but there is no connec- 
tion, apparently. Slaying by cast of apple (or venomous 
apple) occurs often enough in Irish, and may be compared 
with the sport with the huge tennis-ball in The Turk and 
Gawain^ The reversal of CaeFs head is a mischance only 
less embarrassing than what happens in an Oriental story. 
A young woman, by the direction of a goddess, replaces the 
heads of her husband and her brother, and they come to 
life. Unfortunately, in her agitation she has exchanged the 

which his wife sees a bird use for resuscitation. This is identical with the 
incident in Marie's Lai d'Eliduc, vv. 1032 £E, (see R. Kohler's note in 
Wamke's second edition, pp. clvi ff.). Cf. Bolte and Polivka, Anmerkungen 
zu den Kinder- u. Hausmdrchen der Bruder Grimm, 1, 128-129; Giraldus 
Cambrensis, Topographia Hibernica, bk. i, chap. 27 (Rolls edition, V, 
60-61); D'Ancona, Sttidj di Critica, p. 352; Maspons y Labros, Cuentos 
poptdars Catalans, 1885, p. 27 (note, p. 140); Hanusch, Zeitschrift fiir 
deutsche Mythologie, IV, 227; Knowles, Folk-Tales of Kashmir, pp. 12-13; 
Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, pp. 99, iii; Riviere, Conies popidaires de la 
Kahylie, p. 199; Duff Macdonald, Africana, I, 291; Tremearne, Hausa 
Superstitions and Customs, pp. 19, 206-207; Treveylan, Folk-Lore and Folk- 
Stories of Wales, p. 175. See also KeUeher and Schoepperle, Revue Celtique, 
XXXII, 184 ff. 

1 O'Grady, Silva Gadelica, I, 295; II, 331. Cf. Hyde's note in Mac Innes, 
p. 490- 

2 Pearson's edition, I, 146 ff., 158. 

3 Zacher's article on Fortunatus in Ersch und Gruber's Encyklopddie, 
Section I, Part 16, pp. 178 ff.; notes to the Grimms' No. 122. 

* See pp. 120, 221-222. 



THE RETURNING HEAD 155 

heads. The problem is offered: " Which of the two men 
was now her husband ? " ^ The tale occurs in various collec- 
tions. A well-known version from the Cabinet des Fees is 
included by Andrew Lang in his Grey Fairy Book.^ 

In The Adventures of the Children of the King of Norway 
(edited by Dr. Douglas Hyde from several eighteenth- 
century manuscripts and one of about 1600), among the 
marvels seen by Cod in the Forest of Wonders is a company 
of thirteen headless men. Their leader [who seems to have 
his head with him, though not upon his shoulders; perhaps 
he is carrying it; at all events, it is " the Head " that speaks] 
tells Cod how they came to be in that condition. They had 
met a little man with a harp, — " and the Httle man struck 
a fist on the mouth of the man of us who was nearest to him, 
and that man drew his sword to strike the man of the harp, 
as he thought, but it was not he whom he struck, but a man 
of us; so that it was ourselves who beheaded one another,^ 
through the enchantment of the man of the harp.'' Cod 
afterwards beheaded this little " man of the harp." There- 
upon the dwarf " rose up again and departed with his head 
in his hand, and his harp in the other hand." * 

In a Breton tale, a prince who has to perform certain tasks 
at the behest of one Barbauvert, an enchanter, is helped by 
his taskmaster's daughter, after the manner of such stories. 
His final labor is to recover a big anchor from the bottom of 
the sea. He cuts off her head, which dives and brings up 

^ Kathd-sarit-sagara, Book xii, Chap. 80 {Vetala, 6), Tawney, II, 264. 
See Burton, Vikrant and the Vampire, pp. 278 £f. 

2 Pp. 250 £E. 

^ Compare Cadmus and the Dragon's Teeth, and Odin's trick by which 
he causes the nine mowers to behead each other with their scythes in a 
scramble for the whetstone {Bragaroe^ur, chap. 4). 

* The Lad of the Ferule, etc. (Irish Texts Society, I), pp. 122-129. I^^- 
Hyde thinks " this story was a written one in perhaps the fourteenth cen- 
tury " (p. xiv). 



IS6 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

the anchor. Then he replaces the head, and it grows on 
again. 1 

In The Thirteenth Son of the King of Erin, a tale of the 
Andromeda type, the hero cuts off the head of the sea- 
serpent (urfeist), but it rushes back and grows on again. 
Next day the hero cuts the monster in two, but the two 
halves rush together and are one as before. On the third 
day the beast is killed by means of a magic apple.^ In a 
Faeroe version, the hero cuts off the ten heads of a monster 
(tr^dl) and sets free the maiden whom he is on the point of 
devouring. The hero is assisted by three dogs, and it is 
arranged that one of these shall seize each head as soon as it 
is off and swim across the fjord with it. The dog is too slow 
the first time, and the head returns to its place on the 
monster's neck and has to be cut off again. Later in the 
story, the three dogs replace their master's head, which has 
been cut off by the typical ^' supplanter." They get it on 
hindside before and are obliged to cut it off and replace it 
properly. When this is done, he comes to life.^ In a Magyar 
tale, the hero cuts off a dragon's twenty-four heads with his 
magic sword, but new heads grow instantly on which the 
sword has no effect.^ In the Russian skazka of Ivan Buiko- 
vich ^ Ivan has to fight a twelve-headed monster called a 
chudoyudo, whose heads grow on as fast as they are cut off. 
A snake with many heads replaces the chudoyudo in a parallel 
adventure.® Both these stories might be derived from 

1 Luzel, Contes populaires de Basse Bretagne, II, 355 £f. 

2 Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, pp. 165-166, 168-170. This 
story is studied, in connection with others of the t3T)e, by Hartland, The 
Legend of Perseus, III, 4 ff. Cf . J, F. Campbell, The Celtic Dragon Myth. 

^ Jakobsen, Fcer^ske Folkesagn og ^ventyr, No, 35, pp. 372-374. 
^ Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of the Russians, etc., p. 482 (from Merenyi). 
^ Summarized by Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, pp. 70 ff., from Afanasiev, 
Narodnyja Russkija Skazki, VII, 3. 

^ Afanasiev, II, No. 30; Ralston, pp. 66 ff. 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 57 

Greek mythology, but this is improbable, and no such 
source will be suggested for the instances previously cited. 
And, at all events, the Lernaean hydra herself is a brilliant 
example of the class of monsters that we are studying. She 
had nine heads, one of which could not die. In place of each 
of the first eight, two others grew as fast as it was cut off. 
lolaus helped Hercules by cauterizing each strnnp before the 
two new heads had time to sprout. The undying head was 
buried under a huge stone to prevent it from joining the 
neck.i The hydra myth has taken us away from Celtic 
territory, but it makes little difference what road we travel, 
for the world is full of creatures that resume their heads. 
Orrilo in the Orlando Furioso comes within our category. In 
his great fight with Oliver's sons, whenever his head is cut 
off, he gropes about till he finds it, — then he picks it up 
{" or pel crine ed or pel naso ") and replaces it on his shoul- 
ders. Once Grifone, to block this game, caught up the head 
and threw it into the Nile, but it was of no avail. Orrilo 
^' swam to the bottom like a fish " and soon appeared on the 
bank with his head. Astolfo's book gives the necessary 
instructions: the monster's Ufe resides in a certain hair.^ 
Halewijn, the woman-slayer in the magnificent Dutch 
ballad that belongs with Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight in 
English and Kvindemorderen in Danish, makes a good tragic 
pendant to the half-comic Orrilo. His head speaks after the 
heroic lady has cut it off with his own sword. It urges her 
to wind his [magic] horn to " warn his friends," and when 
she refuses, bids her go to the gallows-tree whereon he has 
hanged many maids, fetch a pot of salve from under it, and 
rub his red neck. 

1 See the references in Roscher's Lexicon, I, 2769-2770. 

2 Canto 3rv, sts. 65 ff. Madden cites this passage (Syr Gawayne, pp. 307- 
308). 



IS8 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

" Gaet ginder onder de galge 
En haelt daer een pot met zalve 
En strykt dat aen myn rooden hals! " ^ 

She again refuses, washes the head in a spring, and carries it 
away with her. A similar incident is found in several ver- 
sions of the corresponding German ballad.^ Halewijn is 
plainly a supernatural creature, and the ointment should not 
be necessary. It betrays rationalization, and from that 
point of view we may compare the strange knight in the 
service of the damsel Lynet in Malory's Morte Darthur} A 
Tuscan folk-tale brings us back to the less sophisticated 
idea. The hero, having beheaded a magician, loses no time 
in piercing the head with his sword : otherwise it would have 
united with the trunk.^ 

Monsters of the same kind are known in Eastern story. 
In the Kathd-sarit-sdgara, the hero Indivarasena fights with 
a rakshasa. He " frequently cut off the rakshasa's head, 
but it grew again. Seeing that magic power of his, and 
having had a sign made to him by the virgin at the rak- 
shasa's side, who had fallen in love with him at first sight, 
the prince, after cutting off the head of the rakshasa, being 
quick of hand, again cut it in two with a stroke of his 
sword. Then the rakshasa's magic was bafHed by contrary 
magic, and his head did not grow again, and the rakshasa 
died of the wound." ^ 

^ Stanza 31, Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Niederlandische Volkslieder, 2d 
ed., 1856, p. 41. 

2 See Child, I, 25, 26, 30, 49, 485-486, on this incident in various versions. 

3 Book vii, chaps. 22-23, ed. Sommer, I, 247 ff. The heroine of a Portu- 
guese tale enters the hall of the dead, finds certain pots containing the blood 
of two sisters marked with their names, puts heads and bodies together, and 
brings the girls to life with the help of their blood (Coelho, Contos populates 
Portuguezes, 1879, p. 64). 

* Pitrd, Novelle popolari Toscane, pp. 33-39 (see references, pp. 39-40). 
^ Book vii. Chap. 42, Tawney, I, 385. Cf. p. 49, above. 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 59 

In a Papuan tale, a man pulled off his head, laid it on the 
beach, and waded into the sea. " And it came to pass that 
the man bowed himself, and a multitude of fishes rushed 
down the man's throat, which was open to the water." 
Returning to the shore, he replaced his head. A boy was on 
the watch and told what he had seen. Next day, when the 
man repeated his performance, one of the villagers removed 
the head from the beach and threw it into the bush. After 
crawling about in a vain search for his head, the man rushed 
into the sea, became a huge fish, and dived out of sight.^ 

An amusing anecdote illustrative of the ease with which 
savages believe in the possibility of replacing heads, is 
printed in The Present State of New-England with Respect to 
The Indian War, London, 1676.2 '' All being ready on both 
sides to fight. Captain Moseley plucked off his Periwig, and 
put it into his Breeches, because it should not hinder him in 
fighting. As soon as the Indians saw that, they fell a 
HowHng and YelHng most hideously, and said, Umh, Umh, 
me no stawmerre fight Engis mon, Engis mon get two hed, 
Engis mon got two hed; if me cut of un hed, he got noder, a put 
on beder as dis; with such like words in broken English, and 
away they all fled and could not be overtaken, nor seen any 
more afterwards." After this one is not surprised to find 
material that is much to the purpose in the myths and 
legends of our aborigines. 

In a North American Indian story a woman's husband 
and brother-in-law are detained by a chief and his daughter. 
After a meal, the chief lies down to sleep. " Wenn er 
schlief, fiel immer sein Kopf ab." The woman seized it and 

^ Annie Ker, Papuan Fairy Tales, pp. 94 ff. Professor Dixon gave me 
the reference. 

2 P. 12. This passage was given me by Mr. Albert Matthews. Most 
copies, Mr. Matthews notes, bear the date 1675. 



l6o GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

anointed the neck with poison. Then the head and the 
body could not unite, and the chief died.^ Similarly, in 
another story, in the case of an old woman who is a witch or 
demon (her name means Mountain Lioness). She is be- 
headed while she sleeps, but head and trunk fly together 
and join. The hero then decapitates her once more, and lays 
magic herbs on the wound, thus preventing a junction.^ In 
a Hupa tale, the heads of the monster called Two-Neck, 
when cut off by Coyote, jump on again.^ 

In a queer modern Aztec story, from Salvador,^ a man's 
wife steals away by night to her giant lover. The process is 
rather occult. She puts a log in her husband's arms, then 
flies up to the beams of the house, and falls headless to the 
floor. Her head vanishes through the door. The husband, 
who is wide awake, puts hot ashes on the severed neck, with 
the result that the head on returning cannot unite with the 
trunk. It settles on the husband's shoulder and sticks fast 
until he gets rid of it by a trick. A device like that em- 
ployed by the husband to keep his errant wife's head from 
joining her body is used in a Philippine story with good 
effect by some sailors to reduce certain vampire-like women 
(called asuangs) to a nonplus. The asuang remains behind 
with the part of the body that is below the waist — the rest 
flies away on devilish errands. Ashes and a shift in the 
positions of the trunks are the means used to prevent 
reunion.^ 

1 Boas, Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Kiiste Amerikas, 
Berlin, 1895, p. 240 (a Heiltsuk tale). 

2 The same, p. 296 (a Tsimschian tale). 

2 Goddard, Hupa Texts, p. 167 {University of California Publications, 
American Archceology and Ethnology, I). 

* Hartman, Journal of American Folk-Lore, XX, 144-145. 

^ F. Gardner, Philippine (Tagalog) Superstitions, Journal of American 
Folk-Lore, XIX, 198 (cf. 199). 



THE RETURNING HEAD l6l 

From the Galela district of the island of Hahnahera 
(Gilolo) in the Moluccas comes an anecdote of a man who 
took his head with him but left the trunk behind when he 
went off as a werewolf.^ 

What follows is from a myth of the Sioux: " In a great 

duel, the Monster struck off the head of Bladder [a hero], 

and it flew up and into the Divine Presence, where it asked, 

* Shall I kill him ? ' . . . Receiving no reply, it fell upon the 

neck, where it belonged, and was reunited. Bladder then, 

in his turn, struck off the head of the Monster, and exactly 

' the same thing occurred as to the head of Bladder. These 

blows were repeated in turn." . . . The fourth time 

i Bladder received permission, " and while the head of the 

Monster was in the air, he pushed aside the body. Not 

falling upon the wonted place, the head of the Monster 

' rebounded and continues to rebound to this day in the form 

of the sun! " ^ 

, In a Cheyenne story, a hero with magical powers, as an 
' exploit (" that all the people might know what he could 
I do"), pulled tight a bowstring round his neck while dancing 
j and cut off his own head, which fell to the ground. The 
[ trunk continued to dance and the head rolled about and 
I looked at the people. An old woman put head and body 
i together, and he " rose with a smile on his face."^ This 
j reminds one of those Yakut shamans who " cut off their 
' heads, laid them on the shelf, and danced about the yurta 
; without them."^ In a tale from the Philippines, the head 

^ Van Baarda, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Neder- 
landsch-Indi'e, XLV, 435. I owe the reference to Professor Dixon. 

2 Meeker, Siouan Mythological Tales, Journal of American Folk-Lore, 
XIV, 162. 

' Grinnell, Some Early Cheyenne Tales, Journal of American Folk-Lore^ 
XXI, 271-272 (another version, XXI, 282-283). 

* Journal of the Anthropological Institute, XXIV, 137. 



1 62 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

and trunk of a decapitated girl are put together and she 
comes to life.^ 

A widespread tale of the North American and Northeast 
Asiatic aborigines, of which forty-two versions are known to 
me,2 offers valuable evidence as to the kind of creature that 

1 Cole, Traditions of the Tinguian, Field Museum of Natural History, 
Afithropological Series, XIV, 157. 

2 (i) Morice, Three Carrier Myths, Transactions of the Canadian Institute, 
V, 4.S.; (2) Kroeber, Cheyenne Tales, Journal of American Folk-Lore^ 
XIII, 184 ff.; (3) Grinnell, A Cheyenne Obstacle Myth, Journal, XVI, 108 jBf.; 
(4) Wissler, Some Dakota Myths, Journal, XX, 195-196; (5) Voth, Arapaho 
Tales, No. 12, Journal, XXV, 48-49; (6) Martha D. Harris, History and 
Folklore of the Cowichan Indians, Victoria, B. C, 1901, pp. 69 ff.; (7) Grin- 
nell, A Blackfoot Sun and Moon Myth, Journal of American Folk-Lore, VI, 
44 ff. (reproduced with slight changes by Spence, Myths of the North Ameri- 
can Indians, pp. 205 ff .) ; (8) Petitot, Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord- 
Ouest, pp. 407 ff . (Chippewayan) ; (9) Cree tale, Frank Russell, Explorations 
in the Far North, pp. 202-203; (10) Lowie, The Assiniboine, No. 22, American 
Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, IV, 177-178; (11) 
Skinner, Northern Saulteaux Tales, in Notes on the Eastern Crees and Northern 
Saulteaux, American Museum, Anthropological Papers, IX, 168 ff.; (12) 
Schoolcraft, The Myth of Hiawatha, pp. 265 ff.; (13) Cree story, Maclean, 
Canadian Savage Folk, Toronto, 1896, pp. 71-72; (14) Dorsey, Traditions 
of the Skidi Pawnee, pp. 115 ff.; (15) Lowie, Chipewayan Tales, American 
Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, X, 187-188; (16) 
Simms, Traditions of the Sarcee Indians, Journal of American Folk-Lore, 
XVII, 181-182; (17) Dorsey, Traditions of the Arikara, pp. 126-127; (18) 
Dorsey and Kroeber, Arapaho Traditions, No. 94, Field Columbian Museum, 
Anthropological Series, V, 227; (19) Boas, Indianische Sagen von der Nord- 
Pacifischen Kiiste Amerikas, p. 247; (20) Lowie, The Assiniboine, American 
Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, IV, 178, note; (21) 
Dorsey, Traditions of the Caddo, pp. 66-67; (22) Petitot, Traditions Indiennes 
du Canada Nord-Ouest, pp. 24 ff.; (23) Leland, Algonquin Legends, pp. 278 ff.; 
(24) Teit, Traditions of the Thompson River Indians of British Columbia, pp. 
83-84; (25) Teit, The Shuswap, No. 47, Publications of the Jesup North 
Pacific Expedition, II, 724-726; (26) Teit, Traditions of the Lillooet Indians 
of British Columbia, No. 29, Journal of American Folk-Lore, XXV, 334-335; ^ 
(27) William Jones, Fox Texts, pp. 160 ff.; (28) Leland, Algonquin Legends, I 
pp. 273-274; (29) Teit, Traditions of the Lillooet Indians, No. 30, Journal 
of American Folk-Lore, XXV, 335-336; (30) Bogoras, Chukchee Mythology, 
Jesup Expedition, VIII, 26-27, 28 ff.; (31) Rink, Eskimoiske Eventyr og 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 63 

we are considering. A man suspects his wife of an intrigue 
and follows her to a lake,^ where she is joined by a huge 
serpent (or water-monster) ^ that comes up from the 
depths. The injured husband cuts off his wife's head,^ but 
it remains in full life and pursues her children (the husband 
in one version) with intent to devour.'^ They retard the 

Sagn, 1866, No. 16, pp. 89-90 (No. 11 in the English translation, Tales and 
Traditions of the Eskimo, 1875, pp. 143-144); (32) Boas, Indianische Sagen 
von der Nord-Pacifischen Kilste Amerikas, p. 162; (33) the same, pp. 234 ff.; 
(34) the same, pp. 257 ff.; (35) Farrand, Traditions of the Chilcotin Indians, 
No. 30, Jesup Expedition, III, 45 £f.; (36) Boas, Indianische Sagen, as above, 
pp. 281-282; (37) Teit, The Shuswap, No. 46, Jesup Expedition, II, 724- 
725; (38) Wissler and Duvall, Mythology of the Blackfoot Indians, American 
Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, II, 154; (39) Will, 
No-Tongue, a Mandan Tale, Journal of American Folk-Lore, XXVI, 331 ff.; 
(40) Mechling, Malecite Tales, Geological Survey of Canada, Memoirs, XLIX, 
50 ff.; (41) Stamp, A Malecite Tale, Journal of American Folk-Lore, XXVIII, 
243 £F.; (42) Hoffman, The Menomini, 14th Report Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 

174-175- 

^ It is a lake or some body of water in 2, 3, 5, 22-26, 28, 30, 31; a 
hollow tree or stump or the woods in i, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 20, 
21, 27, 40, 41. In 12, 18, 19, 29, 32-36, the lover comes to the house or 
lodge by night. In 13, 14, 38, 39, there is no lover. 37 is eccentric. 

2 The quality of the paramour is of course different in different versions : — 
snake(s), i, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20-23, 28; alligator, 5; water-monster, 3, 24, 
25, 30; loon, 26; bear, 4, 16, 17, 18, 27, 40-42; ants, 15; "male being," 
31; the man in the moon, 19; a man, 11, 12, 29, 32-37. 

^ In this point the versions differ much. The woman is beheaded in i, 3, 
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, II, 13, 14, 20, 32, 38; killed otherwise or in some unde- 
fined way in 2, 4, 12, 18, 25, 26, 27, 31, 33, 37, 39. She is not killed in 15 
(is deserted), 16 (changes to bear), 17 (is beaten), 19, 21 (becomes a snake), 
22 (goes into the marsh where the snakes live), 23 (is abandoned and marries 
the snake), 24 (leaves her husband for a time in shame), 28 (dies from snake 
venom), 29 (dies after eating of her lover), 30, 34 (is struck with lover's 
head and abandoned), 35 (like 34), 36, 40-41 (leaves her husband), 42. 

^ The children are thus pursued in 1-7, 9-14; the husband is the purposed 
quarry in 8 (cf. 38). In 12 the children and perhaps also the husband are 
pursued. In 38 (which is disordered by the intrusion of mdrchen elements 
that belong elsewhere) the head follows the husband, but only to serve him; 
later, however, it pursues and kills an inquisitive boy. There is some kind 



1 64 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

chase by the famiUar device of magic obstacles/ and the 
head finally falls into a stream and disappears forever.^ In 
one version, the woman is repeatedly cut in two, but comes 
together again.^ In another, she attacks her husband, on 
learning of the death of her paramour, but when he succeeds 
in beheading her after a fierce fight, the head pursues the 
children and the trunk continues to struggle with the man.* 
In others, the head pursues the children and the trunk the 
husband.3 The varieties are almost infinite, as was to be 
expected. Many versions lack the pursuit by a head, and 
some have no pursuit at all.« Obviously, however, the wife 
is herself a creature of the Other World, a serpent-woman. 
There are other savage stories (of a very simple kind) which 

of pursuit (though not by a head) or a surrogate in 15-19, 32-36, 40, 41. 
Every trace of this feature is wanting in 20-31, 37. 39, 42. 

1 So in 1-4, 6, 7, 9-11, 13, 14, 34, 35. In some of the other versions there 
is a trace of this feature. 

2 The woman eats of her lover unwittingly or drinks his blood in 6, 8, 9, 

10, II, 20, 21, 24, 29, 40, 41. She eats perforce in 4, 27 (cf. 31)- The children 
eat of their mother without knowing it in 2, 3, 5, i4, 39- There is a trace 
of the wife's eating in 16, 22, 25, 32-3S, 42; but nothing of the kind occurs in 
I, 7, 12, 13, 15, 17-19, 23, 26, 28, 30, 36-38. In this trait of the husband's 
serving some portion of the lover to the wife for her eating, the tale coincides 
remarkably with one of the most celebrated of European stories — repre- 
sented by Boccaccio's Guiscardo and Ghismonda {Decameron, iv, i) and his | 
Rossiglione and Guardastagno (iv, 9), by the romance of the Chdtelain de \ 
Couci, by the biography of the troubadour Guillem de Cabestainh, by the 
luy of Ignaure, by the Herzmdre, and by many baUads. The same trait is 
found in North India in the adventures of Raja Rasalu. The literature has 
been collected and discussed by Child in his remarks on the English ballad 
of Lady Diamond (No. 269, V, 29 ff., 303); cf. A. d'Ancona, Skidj di Critica 

e Storia Letteraria, pp. 326-327- In some versions of the North American 
tale, the husband disguises himself in his wife's clothing (or imitates her 
signal) to entrap the lover. This, again, reminds one of a rather large class 
of European stories, discussed by Schofield, [Harvard] Studies and Notes, 

11, i8sff. . . 

3 Version i. ^ Versions 6, 7; a trace remams m 15. 

4 Version 9 (cf. 7). "^ See p. 163, note 4. * 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 65 

illustrate this tale, though they are not versions of it.^ It is 
very common for denizens of the Other World to be regarded 
as ophidian, or for mortals under enchantment, their con- 
tinual substitutes in mdrchen and romance, to appear in 
serpent form.^ 

The full strength of the occult quality that we are discus- 
sing, enables the head to fly back to the neck, or equips the 
giant with power to pick it up and replace it. In either case, 
the head grows on again spontaneously. Sometimes, how- 
ever, assistance is necessary to replace the head,^ and now 

i and then the scientific spirit has added the requirement of 
anointing with magic balm, as in the ballad of Halewijn and 

'in Malory's story of Lynet's knight with the axe."* 

Miracle may of course take the place of magic or medi- 
cine, and it is not difficult to collect accounts of decapitated 

i men or women who have thus been brought to life. A few 
instances will suffice, and these we may take from Celtic 

\ tradition — first from the lives of the Irish saints. 

I Three men had been beheaded by highwaymen on the 

1 road by which St. Aed was journeying. The robbers found 

I 1 Goddard, Kato Texts, University of California, Publications in American 
{ ArchcBology and Ethnology, V, 175-177, 234-235; Dixon, Maidu Texts, 
I No. 13, pp. 196 fif.; Boas, Kathlamet Texts, pp. 2255.; Rink, Eskimoiske 
\ Eventyr og Sagn, No. 29, pp. 1 21-123; Jacottet, Etude sur les Langues du 
\ Haut-Zambeze, No. 22, Publications de V&cole des Lettres d^ Alger, Bulletin de 
I Correspondence Africaine, Vol. XVI, Part ii, pp. 78-80. Cf . also Dorsey and 
I Kroeber, Arapaho Traditions, No. 77, Field Columbian Museum, Anthro- 
' pological Series, V, 147 ff.; Wissler and Duvall, Mythology of the Blackfoot 
' Indians, American Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, IT, 

150-151; Roth, Animism and Folk-Lore of the Guiana Indians, 30th Report 

of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 204, 246 ff., 378. 
I 2 Melusine, Re Serpente, Kong Lindorm, the lady of Sinadoun in Li 

Biaus, and the damsel in the ballad of Kemp Owyne are celebrated instances. 

See Child, Ballads, I, 306 ff.; Schofield, Studies on the Libeaus Desconus 
j 1895 ; Olrik, Danske Studier, I, i ff . 

3 Pp. 153 ff., 158, 161-162. -* Pp. 157-158- 



1 66 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

themselves unable to move from the spot until the saint 
came up, and his reproofs brought them to penitence. Then 
he put heads and bodies together and called upon the mur- 
dered victims to rise in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
" Vnde ad verbum episcopi illi surrexerunt leti et sani, 
benedicentes Christum et suum pontificem." ^ In like 
manner St. Buite recalled to life a young man who had been 
decapitated by the order of an Irish chief .^ According to a 
legend in the Book of Hy-Many, Cairbre Cromm, chief of the 
Hy-Many in Connacht, was killed at Daire-Chonaidh 
(Derryconny) , and his head was left on a green flagstone in 
the middle of the causeway of Cluain Boirenn. St. Ciaran, 
on hearing of Cairbre's death, visited the place where the 
head was, and took it away from a demon, whom he found 
beside it. " Then the body and the head were carried to 
Cluain [Clonmacnoise], and the head was placed on the 
body. After this the pillow of Kieran was brought [and 
placed] under the head, and the head adhered to the body 
at the word of Kieran, and then Coirpre was resuscitated 
from the dead, but there was a twist in his neck from that 
forth, from which the surname of Crom clung to him ever 
after." ' 

St. Cadoc of Wales is credited with a very impressive 
miracle of this order. An Irish carpenter whom he has 
employed in the erection of an oratory, is murdered by the 
other workmen, who are envious of his marked superiority. 
They cut off his head, tie a huge stone to his body, and sink 
him in a pond. The Irishman's children weep for their 
missing father and rouse St. Cadoc's compassion. He sus- 

^ Vita Sancti Aedi, cap. 12, Plummer, Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae, I, 38. 

2 Vita Sancti Boecii, cap. 16, Plummer, I, 91-92. 

' Journal of the Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archceological Society, 
New Series, 1856-1857, I, 453, note 2 (text and translation). I owe this 
reference to Professor Cross. 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 67 

pects the criminals and interrogates them sharply, but they 
protest that they do not know what has become of the car- 
penter. Then the saint calls together his clerics, and spends 
the night with them in prayer that the truth may be re- 
vealed. Next morning, when the orisons are finished, 
" ecce repente decoUatus artifex caput in sinu suo gestans, 
magnumque lapidem super tergum ferens, madidusque 
cruentus truci horridaque specie, venerabili viro suisque 
discipulis apparuit." The head speaks: " Servant of God, 
put me back on my neck, and I will tell you everything you 
do not know about this matter." It is done, and the truth 
made known. Cadoc gives the carpenter his choice, to live 
on in this world or to die at once and inherit eternal life. 
He repHes: " Let my soul return to everlasting rest " and 
breathes his last while yet speaking the words.^ 

St. Winifred was brought to life by St. Beuno. A savage 
young gentleman of Wales, who was persecuting her with 
his attentions, cut off her head at the chapel door. " Then 
Beuno returned to the corpse, and fitted the head which had 
been projected inside by the stroke of the sword, to the body 
which lay outside, and earnestly besought God to revive the 
body, lest the enemy should rejoice over it. And on the 
prayer, the body with its powers resumed the soul, without 
any scar appearing except a small scar on the neck; but the 
floor infected with her blood cracked, and a fountain sprang 
up in a torrent at the place, and the stones appear bloody at 
present as they did at first, and the moss smells as frankin- 
cense, and it cures divers diseases." ^ Another miracle of a 
similar nature is related of this same St. Beuno. ^ 

^ Vita Sancti Cadoci, cap. 17, Rees, Lives of the Camhro British Saints, 
Llandovery, 1853, pp. 46-47. 

2 Life of St. Beuno, Rees, as above, pp. 301, 518-519. 
* The same, pp. 306-307. 



1 68 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

A famous miracle of St. Eloi appears in an Irish folk-tale 
in a form that brings it within our scope. The daughter of 
the King of Leinster is afflicted with a malady that has 
twisted her head completely round. A young fellow cuts it 
off with due care and replaces it in a proper position. No 
blood flows and the princess becomes the most beautiful of 
women. A smith tries the same treatment on the King of 
Ulster's daughter but in vain, and he is in despair until the 
young fellow appears and finishes the cure.^ The tale is an 
amusing variety of that known in EngHsh from the poem of 
The Smyth whych that Forged him a New Dame? 

In the materials thus far collected, we have seen super- 
natural beings in considerable variety (dragons, snake- 
women, giants, hags, rakshasas, wizards) whose heads come 
on again (or may be replaced) after they are cut off. The 
behef in this strange power is so widespread that it may put 
in a claim to universality. If we disregard miracles, the 
examples cited come from Ireland, Scotland, England, the 
Faeroe Islands, Brittany, Holland, Germany, Hungary, 
Greece, Italy, Russia, India, the Philippines, Papua, the 
Moluccas, and many tribes of the North American aborig- 
ines, from the Far North to the Aztecs of Salvador. 

Another conception is closely connected with this belief. 
It is that which allows the severed head of a man or monster 
to retain its life, or the trunk to go on acting though the head 
is off. Every conceivable variation on this theme is found 
in popular story, and only specimens are here presented. We 
may begin as before, with Celtic material, since the Green 
Knight has a well-established Irish pedigree. 

^ Marstrander, Deux Contes Irlandais, Miscellany Presented to Kuno 
Meyer, 191 2, pp. 374 ff. (with a rich collection of European variants and a 
careful study of the cycle). 

2 Halliwell, Contributions to Early English Literature [No. 3]; Hazlitt, 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 69 

A wild tale of attempted posthumous vengeance is con- 
tained in a very old Irish saga, The Siege of Howth,^ which 
is mentioned in a poem 2 of the tenth century. Conall over- 
comes Mesgegra, King of Leinster, after a hard struggle. 
" ' 1 perceive that thou wilt not go, Conall,' said Mes- 
gegra, ' till thou takest my head with thee. Put thou my 
head above thy head and add my glory to thy glory.' " 
" Then Conall severed his head from him . . . and Conall 
took the head and put it on the flagstone on the ford's 
brink. A drop fell from the back of the head and went 
through the stone into the ground. Then he put Mes- 
gegra's head on the stone, and it moved from the top of the 
stone to the ground, and moved on before him to the river." ^ 
Afterward the head shows its agitation by blushing and 
growing white.^ The command '' Put thou my head above 
thy head and add my glory to thy glory " is so oracular that 
there seems to be no reason why Conall should not have 
obeyed it. In other words, the story, as preserved in the 
Book of Leinster, is not quite intelligible. In a folk- tale, 
however, taken down within the last few years, the same 
incident is preserved in a thoroughly intelHgible form — 
good evidence of the unwisdom of disregarding oral tradi- 
tion. In Balor on Tory Island, Balor, whose grandson had 
overcome him, " called to the grandson and said, ' Come 
near now. Take the head off me and place it above your 
own head a few moments. You will know everything in the 
world, and no one will he able to conquer you.^ Lui took the 

Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, III, 200 ff.; Horstmann, 
Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, pp. 322 ff. 

1 Book of Leinster, ii4b-ii7a of facsimile; edited and translated by- 
Stokes, Revue Celtique, VIII, 47-64; revised translation in Hull, Cuchullin 
Saga, pp. 87-94; Thumeysen, Sagen aus dem alten Irland, p. 68. 

2 By Cinaed hua Artacain, who died in 975. 

3 Hull, p. 92. * Hull, p. 94. 



I70 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

head off his grandfather, and instead of putting it on his own 
head, he put it on a rock. The next moment a drop came 
out of the head, made a thousand pieces of the rock, and 
dug a hole in the earth three times deeper than Loch 
Foyle." 1 

The rolling of Mesgegra's head reminds one of the act of 
the head of a hag in a Tunisian story, which, when the hero 
has cut it off, guides him to the well by means of which he 
descends into the other world.^ The head of Ghazi Miyin, 
who is " claimed as one of the first martyrs of Islam in 
India," and who was killed in battle, '' kept rolling on the 
ground long after it was severed from the trunk." ^ 

An exceedingly curious instance of a head surviving its 
body occurs in Kit Arthur, sl somewhat conglomerate Irish 
folk-tale.* Kil Arthur had cut off a certain giant's head with 
the monster's own sword. He then carried the head " till he 
came to a house. He went in and put the head on a table; 
but that instant it disappeared, — went away of itself. 
Food and drink of every kind came on the table. When Kil 
Arthur had eaten and the table was cleared by some invisi- 

1 Curtin, Hero-Tales of Ireland, p. 294. The same story was taken down 
from recitation by O'Donovan in 1835 and published in his Foiir Masters, 
I, 18-21. 

2 Stumme, Tunisische Mdrchen u. Gedichte, II, 7. On the type to which 
this story belongs, see Cosquin, Contes populaires de Lorraine, No. i, I, i ff., 
and notes. The guiding head does not occur in any other version of the 
mdrchen so far as I know. It may be compared with the ball that rolls to 
guide the hero in many popular tales (see, for example, Curtin, Myths and 
Folk-Tales of the Russians, etc., pp. 2, 77, 99, 190; Hyde, Beside the Fire, 
p. 131; A. Seidel, Geschichten u. Lieder der Afrikaner, p. 32; Folk-Lore 
Record, II, 186; Hull, Cuchullin Saga, p. 74; Spitta Bey, Contes Arabes 
modernes, p. 17; S. O. Addy, Household Tales, p. 52; Curtin, Myths and 
Folk-Lore of Ireland, pp. 35, 37; Journal of American Folk-Lore, XV, 216). 

' Crooke, Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India, Allahabad, 
1894, pp. 131-132 (new ed., Westminster, 1896, I, 208). 
* Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, pp. 182-183. 



THE RETURNING HEAD 171 

ble power, the giant's head bounded on to the table, and 
with it a pack of cards." The head and Kil Arthur have a 
game; the head cheats. Kil Arthur showed the head how 
it had taken five points wrongfully. " Then the head sprang 
at him, struck and beat him till he seized and hurled it into 
the fire." ^ With this head which is so truculent we may 
compare that of Cathead in a story which is interesting in 
connection with the very old story of Arthur's Fight with 
the Cat. It is in Curtin's Birth of Fin MacCumhail.^ Fin 
has already killed two of the hag's sons. She sent " her 
eldest son, who had not been out of the house for years (It 
was only in case of the greatest need that she sent him. He 
had a cat's head, and was called Pus au Chuine, ' Puss of the 
Corner ' ; he was the eldest and strongest of all the brothers) " 
to see why the two delayed. Fin was helped by his dog 
Bran; " but at length Cat-head fastened his teeth into Fin's 
breast, biting and gnawing till Fin cut the head off. The 
body fell to the ground, but the head Hved, gnawing as 
terribly as before " and he '' could neither kill nor pull it 
off." The hag's blood finally released Fin. He beheaded 
her, after a terrific fight, " caught some of her blood, and 
rubbed it around Cat-head, who fell off dead." ^ 

^ Kil Arthur is a version of the tale called by J. F. Campbell, The Daughter 
of King Underwaves {Popular Tales of the West Highlands, III, 403 &.), 
much contaminated with other stories and somewhat confused and decayed. 
The hag-transformation (parallel to Chaucer's Wife of Bathes Tale) which 
forms the introduction in Campbell's version and serves merely as a device 
to bring together Diarmaid and his fairy-bride, is not in Curtin and is 
no original part of the story (see Maynadier, The Wife of Bath's Tale, 

PP- 33-34). 

2 Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, pp. 216 ff. For Carpre (Cairbre) Cat- 
head see Irische Texte, 3d Ser., pp. 188, 206, 384-385, 422. Cf. Revue Celtique, 

XX, 335 ff. 

' This loosening of the head by means of blood may be compared with 
the loosening from magic seats by blood: J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of 
the West Highlands, II, 178-179; see also Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, pp. 



172 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

The West Irish tale of The Ghost and his Wives ^ has some 
resemblance, in parts, to Kil Arthur. It is in essence the 
story of a man who is carried to the other world to learn how 
acceptable hospitality to the poor is to God. The " ghost " 
has three wives, ^ who are condignly treated in the other 
world in accordance with the kinds of meals which they gave 
to the poor in this. But the introduction to the story, 
which brings the man and the " ghost " into acquaintance, 
shows a singular confusion. A man, coming from a funeral, 
finds, as he is passing the churchyard, a man's head (it is not 
called a skull) in the road; he picks it up and deposits it in 
the churchyard. Farther along on the same road he meets 
" the appearance of a gentleman." The gentleman tells him 
it was his head, and adds " If you did anything out of the 
way to it, assuredly I would be even with you." " How did 

195, 216; J. G. Campbell, The Fians, p. 74; Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of 
Ireland, pp. 230, 302, cf. 290; Macdougall, Folk and Hero Tales, p. 58. 
Compare the efiScacy of the blood of the slain Eocho Glas in the shorter Fled 
Bricrend (Yellow Book of Lecan), Irische Texte, Series II, Heft I, pp. 184, 
206. 

1 Larminie, West Irish Folk-Tales, pp. 31 ff. 

2 We have here a good example of how folk-lore behaves. The Ghost and 
his Wives shows at least five different motifs (found separately elsewhere) 
twisted together to form the introduction to an exemplary anecdote: (i) 
the man who invites a skull to dine with him; (2) the stealing of a skull or 
shroud or the like, which the dead owner comes to reclaim; (3) creatures 
that play fast and loose with their heads; (4) the thankful dead; (5) match 
with a supernatural being (" playing cards with the devil "). For (i) see, 
for example, J. W. Wolf, Deutsche Mdrchen und Sagen, p. 225; MiiUer, 
Siebenhurgische Sagen, No. 57, pp. 138 ff.; Reiser, Sagen des Allgdus, I, 414; 
Annates de Bretagne, XIV, 163-165; Le Braz, La Legende de la Mart en Basse- 
Bretagne, pp. 71 ff. (3d ed., I, 123 ff.); Dottin's note in Le Braz, 3d ed., I, 
288-289, etc. For (2) see Wolf, as above, pp. 238-239; Luzel, Legendes 
chretiennes de la Basse Bretagne, II, 155 ff.; Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, 
pp. 307 ff., etc. For (4) see Gerould, The Grateful Dead, 1908. For (5) see 
pp. 196 ff., below. There is an extravagantly truculent death's head in 
a queer little tale in Cosquin, Contes populaires de Lorraine, No. 57, II, 
174. 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 73 

you lose your head ? " "I did not lose it at all, but I left it 
in the place where you found it to see what you would do 
with it." " I beHeve you are a good person (i.e., a fairy)." 
The mail invites him home to dinner, and after dinner the 
stranger suggests a game of cards. But nothing comes of 
the game. 

In a Japanese saga, Yorimitsu beheads the monster 
Shudenoji; but the monster's head flies up and bites at him. 
He succeeds, however in kilHng Shudenoji at last.^ In a Tin- 
guian tale from the Philippines, a man beheads his wife's 
lover. The head springs up and attaches itself to the 
woman's breast, but later she is reheved of it.^ 

In an Indian story from Canada, the hero's enemies 
torture him and cut off his head; but it survives and pur- 
sues them. They throw it into the fire, but fire will not 
consume it. Finally they grind it to powder, and even then 
it does not die, but changes into a cloud of mosquitoes.^ In 
a Modoc tale the head of Ndukis is cut off by one of the 
five Blaiwas brothers, who flies toward heaven with it; but 
one of the two sisters of the slayer, breaking his prohibition, 
looks up, and the head falls to the ground, flies at the other 
four Blaiwas brothers, and kills them all. The head then 
becomes the husband of the two sisters. Finally it is killed 
by the surviving brother by the heat of the sweat-house. 
When the house is opened, a fine young man is found there, 
lifeless, instead of the head (disenchantment ?) .^ We have 

1 Mitford, Tales of Old Japan, 1871, I, 153 (1890, p. 153). For other 
versions see Iwaya's Fairy Tales of Old Japan, The Goblin Mountain, Tokyo, 
1903, pp. 37-38; Ozaki, Warriors of Old Japan, pp. 129-130; F. Hadland 
Davis, Myths and Legends of Japan, p. 47, Cf. F. York Powell, An English 
Miscellany presented to Dr. Furnivall, pp. 395-396. 

2 Cole, Traditions of the Tinguian, pp. 78-80 {Field Museum of Natural 
History, Publication 180, Anthropological Series, Vol. XIV). 

' Petitot, Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-Ouest, p. 405 (cf. p. 410). 
* Curtin, Myths of the Modocs, pp. 189 ff. 



174 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

already studied the North American story of the pursuit of 
a man or his children by a severed head.^ 

Some Australian aborigines think it essential to destroy 
the bones, and especially the skulls, of their enemies. 
Otherwise the victims will come to life and follow those who 
have killed and eaten them. One of their traditions tells of 
two Lizard Men, brothers. The younger searched for the 
elder, who had been slain, and found his head. He spoke to 
it, and the man instantly came to life.^ 

In a story from Papua a husband mourns at his wife's 
grave, with the result that her skull comes to the surface and 
remarks, *' You love me. I will follow you." ^ It is a skull 
by day but a woman by night.^ The tale seems to illustrate 
the common beUef that extravagant mourning disturbs the 
repose of the dead.^ 

Horsemen that carry their heads on their saddle-bows and 
ghosts that bear their heads in their hands are known the 
world over. A great number of instances from Northern 
India have been collected by Major Temple.^ Everybody 
will remember the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow as 
well as the ghost of young Hamilton Tighe in the Ingoldshy 
Legends. Lund,^ who has peculiar views about heathendom 

1 Pp. 162 ff. 

2 Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 475, 390. 

' Van Hasselt, Bijdragen tot Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Neder- 
landsch-Indi'e. LXI, 492-493. I owe the reference to Professor Dixon. 

* Cf. Maynadier, The Wife of Bath's Tale, pp. 201 S.. 

^ See Child, Ballads, II, 228, 2345., 512-513; III, 512-513; V, 62-63, 
294-295. 

^ In a remarkable article entitled Folklore of the Headless Horseman in 
Northern India, in the Calcutta Review, LXXVII, 158-183. See also Crooke, 
Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India, Allahabad, 1894, pp. 159- 
160 (new ed., Westminster, 1896, 1, 256-258). European examples might be 
collected in endless numbers: see, for instance, J. W. Wolf, Deutsche Mdrchen 
u. Sagen, pp. 315-316, 516-517. 

^ Tolv Fragmenter om Hedenskabet, I, 67. 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 75 

and apparitions, is bold enough to recognize a man with his 
head in his hand on a Scottish sculptured stone reproduced 
by Stuart.i 

Many East Indian worthies fought valiantly after their 
heads were off.^ So did Starka^r in the Elder Edda.^ In a 
late Icelandic saga, an uncanny woman, H61mgrit5r, acts a 
familiar part in bringing cer.tain giants to life, " og bor^ust 
hofuSlausir." ^ Klaufi, the terrific revenant in the Svarf- 
dcelasaga, uses his own head as a club.^ Fawdoun, in the 
Wallace, is almost as terrific as Klaufi, and quite as cor- 
poreal. Wallace has struck off his head '* in ire " because he 
lagged behind. That night Wallace with a troop of thirteen 
takes lodging in Gask Hall. They hear a great din of horn- 
blowing, and he sends his followers out, in relays, to see 
what it means, but none come back, and he is left alone. 
Then he goes to the door himself, and there stands Faw- 
doun, his head in his hand. He throws the head at Wallace, 
but he catches it by the hair and throws it back. Wallace 
runs up through the Hall ** to a close stair," breaks the 
boards, and leaps " fifteen foot large out of that inn." As 
he flees, he looks back and sees that Fawdoun has set the 
Hall afire, or so it looks. The author thinks the apparition 

^ J. Stuart, Sculptured Stones of Scotland, I, plate 29. 

2 Temple, Calcutta Review, LXXVII, 158 ff.; Crooke, Popular Religion 
and Folklore of Northern India, 1894, p. 157 (1896, I, 217), 

' Helgakvi^a Hundingshana II, st. 27 (19), Bugge, Norroen Fornkvce^i, 
p. 196. Saxo Grammaticus says that the head of Starcatherus " corpori 
auulsum impactumque terre glebam morsu carpsisse fertur, ferocitatem 
animi moribundi oris atrocitate declarans " (book viii, p. 406, Miiller and 
Velschow). A cannibal in Teit's Traditions of the Thompson River Indians 
of British Columbia goes on wrestling after he is decapitated (p. 81), and an 
old diablesse in Hungary continues to act her part in a similar condition 
(Klimo, Contes et Legendes de Hongrie, p. 292). 

* Saga af Fertram og Plato, as quoted by Jiriczek, Zeitschrift fiir deutsche 
Philologie, XXVI, 23. 

^ Svarfdcela Saga, chap. 19 {Islendinga Sogur, 1830, II, 164). 



176 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

was the devil, but leaves that question to clerks.^ O'Kear- 
ney remarks, " We have our stories about Colan gan cheann, 
and more than this it has come down to our own time." ^ 
The story of the man who lost his head for perjury and hved 
seven years without it is in the Book of Leinster ^ and else- 
where.^ 

The legends are innumerable of saints who rise imme- 
diately after their martyrdom and carry their heads in their 
hands, often to the spot where they wish to be buried. St. 
Denis is perhaps the most famous of this class. He bore his 
head two miles before he reached his burial place. ^ Other 
head-carrying saints in sacred legend or popular tradition 
are St. Savinian,^ St. Proculus of Bologna,^ St. Januarius,^ 
St. Osith,9 St. Sidwell (Sativola),!^ the Welsh St. Decuman,ii 

^ Wallace, Book v, vv. 103 ff. 

2 The Festivities at the House of Conan, Ossianic Society, II, 147, note. 
Cf. J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, II, 89-91; J. G. 
Campbell, Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scot- 
land, pp. 191-194; Douglas Hyde, The Lad of the Ferule, pp. 106-107. 

3 O'Grady, Silva Gadelica, I, 416 (translation, II, 453). 

^ See O'Grady, Silva Gadelica, 1, 74 (II, 78); II, xix, 548; Mirabilia in 
the Appendix to Todd's edition of the Irish Nennius, pp. 206-207 (and 
note); Wright and Halliwell, Reliquiae Antiquae, II, 105; Four Masters, 
ad ann. 539 (ed, O'Conor, p. 151). 

^ Hilduin, Vita Sancti Dionysii, cap. 32 (Migne, CVI, 47). Cf. Acta 
Sanctorum, October, IV, 794; Vie et Histoire de Saint Denys, ed. Omont, 
p. 10, plate XVI; Legende de Saint Denis, ed. Henry Martin, pp. 59-60, 
plates LXVII-LXIX. D'Arbois de Jubainville {Revue Celtique, XII, 167- 
168) compares St. Denis with Uath in Fled Bricrend (see pp. 17 ff., above); 
see also his Cours de la Litter ature Celtique, V, 147, 

^ Acta Sanctorum, January, II, 943; A. Socard, Livres Populaires im- 
primes a Troyes de 1600 a 1800 (Paris, 1864), p. 39. 

' Keysler's Travels, English translation, 1757, III, 119; Kornmann, De 
Miraculis Mortuorum, Pt. iv, chap. 11 (Opera Curiosa, 1694, p. 104). 

* See the plate in B. Croce, Pulcinella, pp. 54-56. 

^ Stanton, Menology of England and Wales, 1887, pp. 477-478; Bond, 
Dedications and Patron Saints of English Churches, 19 14, pp. 126-127, 326. 

^^ Bond, as above, pp. 126, 127, 328. " Acta Sanctorum, August, VI, 24. 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 77 

St. Aude and St. Noyale in Brittany.^ Father Cahier has 
collected about eighty examples.^ It is a good conjecture 
that many of these legends arose from images of saints 
holding their heads as a sign of the manner of their martyr- 
dom. 

Whether or not a severed head can speak is briefly dis- 
cussed by Aristotle in the De Partibus Animalium. He tells 
a good Carian story of a priest's head that was said to have 
denounced his murderer. But he rationally objects that 
speech is impossible when the windpipe is cut and there can 
be no notion communicated to the vocal organs from the 
lungs. He admits, however, that there is nothing unreason- 
able in the idea that the trunk may move forward a little, 
even after the head is off.^ 

However, heads that speak have been a well-attested 
phenomena in Ireland for more than a thousand years. In 
one of the oldest saga-texts * that we have, The Destruction 
of Da Dergd's Hostel,^ Conaire Mor is besieged in his palace 
by a troop of Irish and British pirates led by the one-eyed 
Ingcel, son of the British king. MacCecht forces his way 
through the besiegers and brings water to Conaire. On his 
return, he finds two foemen in the act of striking off the dead 
king's head. He kills them both, and pours the water into 
Conaire's neck, whereupon the severed head speaks a little 
poem in praise of MacCecht.^ 

1 Baring-Gould and Fisher, Lives of the British Saints, I, i86; IV, lo-ii. 

2 Caracteristiques des Saintes dans VArt Populaire, II, 761 ff.; cf. Acta 
Sanctorum, October, VII, 819. 

' iii, 10, 9-12. ^ Zimmer, Haupt's Zeitschrift, XXXV, 13. 

^ Edited and translated by Stokes, Revue Celtique, XXII, 9 ff,, 165 ff., 
282 ff., 390 ff. For analysis and discussion, see Zimmer, Kuhn's Zeitschrift, 
XXVIII, 554 ff.; see also Nettlau, On the Irish Text Togail Bruidne Da 
Derga and Connected Stories, Revue Celtique, XII, 22gS., 444 ff.; XIII, 
252 ff.; XIV, 137 ff. 

« Revue Celtique, XXII, 321-323; Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XXVIII, 562. 



178 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Another very old Irish story of a speaking head is pre- 
served in Cormac's Glossary. Cormac fell in 903, and the 
best authorities regard the passage in question as belonging 
to the oldest portion of the text.^ Finn's fool Lomna Druth 
reveals an intrigue between Coirpre and one of Finn's con- 
cubines. Coirpre, at the woman's instance, slays the fool 
and carries off his head. " Finn goes upon the track of the 
soldiers [Coirpre and his men] and found Coirpre in an 
empty house cooking fish, . . . and Lomna's head was on 
a spike by the fire." The head speaks twice. " * Put out 
the head,' says Coirpre." Then it speaks a third time '^ from 
outside." What prompted these speeches, it seems, was 
Coirpre's neglect to give the head even a morsel of the fish.^ 
With the anecdote of Lomna should be compared an Irish 
fragment on the Death of Finn in Egerton MS. 92,^ in which 
Finn's head speaks when his beheaders are eating by the fire. 

A splendid epic story is that of the warning of Sualtaim, 
Cuchulinn's father. He has ridden to Emain Macha to 
summon the Ulstermen to protect their land against the 
raid of AiUll and Medb. He receives no good answer, and 
as he rides away in fury, his horse caracoling brings the 
sharp edge of the shield against Sualtaim's neck and takes 
off his head, which falls into the hollow of the shield. The 
horse returns to Emain on the gallop, with the head on the 
shield and the shield upon his back, and the head again 
shouts the words of warning: " Men are slain, women are 
carried captive, kine are driven away." This time his sum- 
mons is heeded.'* 

1 Zimmer, Haupt's Zeitschrift, XXXV, 37-38; Stokes, in Nutt's note to 
Maclnnes, Folk and Hero Tales, p. 407. 

2 Stokes, Three Irish Glossaries, pp. 34-35; Cormac's Glossary, translated 
by O'Donovan, edited by Stokes, 1868, pp. 130-13 1. 

' Edited by Kuno Meyer, Zeitschrift fiir celtische Philologie, I, 462-465. 
* Tain Bo Cuailgne, Book ofLeinster, pp. 93^-940; translated by Zimmer, 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 79 

The severed head of Fothad sang a song — which is pre- 
served — to the woman with whom he had a tryst. She had 
recovered the head and brought it to the grave. " Hush 
woman, do not speak to me! " ^ Donnbo, a famous harper 
and story-teller, had promised Fergal, the night before a 
battle, to entertain the company next day. He is killed in 
the fight, but his head redeems the promise. There is much 
conversation between the head and a young warrior. The 
head is placed upon a pillar and sings a most piteous lay. 
Later the same young warrior took the head to the body and 
" fixed it on the neck." ^ With this incident Kuno Meyer ^ 
compares one of the ** wonders of Ireland," — the skull of 
a merry man, which, being dug up many years after his 
death and laid on a high stone in the churchyard, makes 
everybody laugh who sees the place where the mouth and 
tongue used to be. This particular " wonder " (which 
reminds one whimsically of Yorick) is not mentioned among 
the Irish mirabilia in Todd's edition of Nennius,^ nor does 
it occur in the list given by Giraldus Cambrensis,^ but it is 
No. 20 in the Old Norse Speculum Regale.^ 

Stokes ^ sees some resemblance between Donnbo's head 
and that of Bendigeit Vran in the mabinogi of Branwen 

Kukri's Zeitschrijt, XXVIII, 470; by O'Grady, in Hull, Cuchullin Saga, 
pp. 204-205; ed. Windisch, chap. 24, pp. 666-667. 

1 Reicne Fothaid Canainne, ed. by Kuno Meyer, Fianaigecht, p. 8 (Todd 
Lecture Series, XVI). A skuU sings in one of Boas's Kwakiutl Tales. It is 
the head of a woman, and its song is very pretty and pathetic (Columbia 
University, Contributions to Anthropology, II, 106-107). 

2 O'Donovan, Annals of Ireland, Three Fragments, pp. S3 ff- (Irish Archae- 
ological and Celtic Society). 

' Folk-Lore, V, 314. * Pp. 192-219. 

^ Topographia Hibernica, book ii. 

^ Christiania, 1848, cap. 11, p. 28; ed. Brenner, 1881, p. 45; Kuno 
Meyer, Folk-Lore, V, 313-314, and £riu, III, 13-14- Cf. Thumeysen, 
Zeitschrift fiir celtische Philologie, I, 168. 

' Revue Celtique, V, 232. 



l8o GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Daughter of Llyr. There is not much similarity, but the 
Welsh tale deserves a place in our register. Bran bids his 
followers cut off his head, carry it to the White Hill at ^ 
London (Llundein), and bury it there with the face toward 
France. They will be a long time en route, he predicts. At 
Harlech they will remain at table seven years, and his head 
will be as agreeable company for them as it ever was when 
it was on his shoulders. At Gwales they will spend eighty 
years. All these predictions come to pass. While the 
charm is on them, they are happy, oblivious of fatigue and 
of the lapse of time. At last they reached London and 
buried the head. So long as it remained buried, no invading 
host could enter the island. Its subsequent disinterment 
was a great stroke of misfortune.^ 

Instances of speaking heads in modern Irish folk-lore have 
already been cited.^ One, like the Green Knight's, enjoins 
upon the hero a perilous expedition.^ 

There is a talking death's head in the lost Gawain story 
tantalizingly outlined by Pierre Bersuire.^ " Quid dicam de 

^ Loth, Les Mabinogion, I, 90 £f. (2d ed., I, 145 £f.; cf. pp. 120, note, 
239 ff.); Lady Guest, Mabinogion, III, 124 ft. For the Welsh text see Rh5^s 
and Evans, Red Book of Hergest, I, 40 ff. See also Rh^s, Hibbert Lectures, 
pp. 96 ff., Arthurian Legend, pp. 253-261, 394; Anwyl, Zeitschrift fiir Celt- 
ische Philologie, I, 286-287; A. Reinach, Revue Celiique, XXXIV, 50 ff. 
Nutt, in Folk-Lore Record, V, 14, cites two excellent Irish cases of the 
burial of a body with its face to the foe as a defensive charm (O'Donovan, 
Four Masters, I, 145, 180). The burial of Bran's head reminds one of 
Guortemir's wish to be interred on the shore of the port from which the 
barbarians had sailed away (Nennius, cap. 47, Monumenta Hist. Brit., p. 69). 
Liebrecht compares with Bran's head that of Tolus {Zur Volkskunde, pp. 
289-290). A magic wooden head protects a fortress in Grey, Polynesian 
Mythology, pp. 279 ff. Cf. Dorsey, The Pawnee, Mythology, p. 494. 

2 Pp. 149-150- I 

3 Curtin, Hero-Tales of Ireland, p. 497. 

^ Reductoriunt Morale, Prol. to book xiv. Opera Omnia, ed. 1631, II, 901. 
The passage is quoted, in English, by Madden, Syr Gawayne, p. xxxii. 
There is some resemblance between this and Curtin's Kil Arthur (see p. 171, 



THE RETURNING HEAD l8l 

mirabilibus quae in historijs Galuagni, & Arcturi ponuntur, 
quorum vnum de omnibus recito, scilicet de palatio quod 
Galuagnus sub aquam casu raptus reperit, vbi mesam 
refertam epulis, & sedem positam inuenit, ostium vero per 
quod exire valeret, non vidit, qui cum famesceret & come- 
dere vellet, statim caput hominis mortui positum in lance 
affuit,^ & gigas in feretro iuxta ignem iacuit, giganteque 
surgente, & palatium capite concutiente, capite vero cla- 
mante, & cibos interdicente, nunquam de cibis comedere 
ausus fuit, qui post multa miracula exijt, sed nesciuit 
qualiter exiuit." 

With the talking heads in Irish story may be compared 
the oracular head of Mimir in the Ynglingasaga,^ the oracu- 
lar human heads of the Harranians^ and of various East 
Indian savage tribes,'^ and the mediaeval conception of the 
Hebrew teraphim.^ There is a wild tale of one Joseph, an 

above). It also reminds one slightly of The Turk and Gawain and more 
strikingly of Finn and the Phantoms, Revue Celtique, XIII, 14, Bersuire's 
fifteenth book, De Fabulis Poetarum, where (if anywhere) one would expect 
him to give the whole story, is preserved, but has never been printed. It 
is in the main an allegorical commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses. See 
Haureau, Mem. de I'Institut, Acad, des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, XXX, 
ii, 48 ff . Dr. A. C. L. Brown has examined the manuscript, and tells me that 
it contains nothing that in any way resembles the lost tale of Gawain and 
no mention of Gawain or any other knight of the Round Table. 

^ On the death's head in the plate, cf. J. Pratorius, Anthropodemus 
Plutonicus, Pt. I, ch. 8, p. 360 (1666). 

2 Chaps. 4, 7; Voluspd, st. 46 (Bugge, Norroen Fornkva^i, p. 8). Cf. 
Chantepie de la Saussaye, Religion of the Teutons, translated by Vos, p. 
232; Kahle, Zeitschrift des Vereins fiir Volkskunde, XVI, 415-417. 

^ Chwolson, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismiis, II, 19 ff., 148 ff. 

* Alfred C. Haddon, Head-Hunters, Black, White, and Brown, pp. 91-92, 
182-183; Dall, Third Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 94 flf. 

^ Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus, I, 260 ff. (1652); Chwolson, II, 148 ff.; 
Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 290; Am Ur-Quell, Neue Folge, V, 92-93, 
117 ff.; Bodin, De la Demonomanie des Sorciers, ii, 3 (Paris, 1580, fol. 72 r"; 
1587, fol. 78 v°); Wier, De Lamiis, ii, 15, Basel, 1582, col. 211; John Weemse, 



1 82 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

English Hospitaller at Acre during the Crusades, who 
desired to know what was happening at home. A young 
man who had learned magic of the Saracens went down to 
the seashore, dug up a death's head, " et facta aliquamdiu 
incantatione sua iussit idem loqui." The skull was a 
Saracen's who had died a hundred years before, but it was a 
demon that gave the response.^ 

Jean Bodin, the eminent political philosopher, in his cele- 
brated treatise De la Demonomanie des S orders, puts on 
record a story that he heard from two highly respectable 
acquaintances of his, the Sieur de Noailles, French am- 
bassador at Constantinople, and a Polish gentleman named 
Pruinski, who had been ambassador at Paris. " One of the 
great kings of Christendom" consulted a Jacobin necroman- 
cer about the future. The friar said mass and consecrated 
the host; then he had a first-born boy of ten years beheaded 
and caused his head to be placed upon the host. " Puis 
disant certaines paroles, & vsant de characteres, qu'il n'est 
besoin de sgauoir, demanda ce qu'il vouloit." The experi- 
ment was a dismal and tragic failure. The head uttered only 
two words: " Vim patior." And immediately the king 
entered, raging and crying out, " Take away that head! " 
and died " ainsi enrage." The thing, adds Bodin, is held for 
certain and indubitable in the whole realm where it occurred, 
though but five persons were present when it happened. ^ 
This anecdote reminded Bodin of the madness and death of 

Works, 1636, IV, 88 {A Treatise of the Foure Degenerate Sonnes, the Atheist, 
The Magitian, the Idolater, and the lew); Increase Mather, An Essay for 
the Recording of Illustrious Providences, Boston, 1684, p. 183 (reprint, ed. 
Offor, p. 130). 

^ Speculum Laicorum (Additional MS. 11 284, fol. 22, British Museum), 
Herbert, Catalogue of Romances, III, 382, §152; Thorns, Altdeutsche Blatter, 

11, 77- 

2 ii, 3, Paris, 1580, fol. 71 v°; 1587, fol. 78. 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 83 

the great Theodoric, who thought the head of a fish was 
that of the murdered S)anmachus.^ " Humanity," writes 
Gibbon, " will be disposed to encourage any report which 
testifies to the jurisdiction of conscience and the remorse of 
kings." 2 

Bodin adds that " ceux qui tiennent des testes de mort," 
unless they are physicians or surgeons, are usually ne- 
cromancers. He cites — mistakenly, I think, — the ocular 
evidence of Joachim Camerarius ^ and appends a Parisian 
example.^ 

John Cotta, the early seventeenth-century Enghsh physi- 
cian, who has the reputation of being on the right side in the 
witchcraft debate,^ repeats from Pico della Mirandola the 
statement that " a famous magician of Italy in his time, did 
keepe the skull of a dead man, out of which the Diuell did 
deliuer answeres vnto men enquiring, when the wizard had 
first vttered certaine words, and had torned the skull toward 
the Sunne." ® 

Both Kornmann and Garmann, in their ghoulish treatises 
De Miraculis Mortuorum, accumulate examples of speaking 
heads.^ Antiquity lent weight to such fancies. There was 

1 Procopius, Bell. Goth., i, i (Byzantine Corpus, [XVIII,] 11). 

2 Chap. 39 (Bury's 3d ed., 1908, IV, 203). 

' Camerarius, discussing the question, " Quae est Gorgon seu Gorgo ? " 
admits the possibility of " suspecting " that such a head, fatal to all be- 
holders, may have been prepared by charms and magic: " quemadmodum 
& nobis aliquando legere contigit quaedam, quibus obseruatis operando, & 
incantando peractis, caput hominis mortui responsa esset daturum " (Pro- 
blemata, Decuria iii, No. i, ed. Heidelberg, 1594, pp. 216-217). 

* Demonomanie, bk. ii, ch. 3 (ed. 1587, fols. 80 v^-Si 1°). On cephalo- 
mantia in general cf. Del Rio, Disquisitiones Magicae, lib. iv, cap. 2, quaest. 
6, sect. 4, § II (ed. Venice, 1616, pp. 544-545). 

^ Studies in the History of Religions presented to C. H. Toy, 1912, pp. 21-22. 

^ The Infallible True and Assured Witch, London, 1624, p. 106. I have 
not foimd the place in Pico. 

' Kommann, De Miraculis Mortuorum, Part iv, chaps, i, 5, 18, 19, 22, 



1 84 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

the singing head of Orpheus, which became a Lesbian 
oracle and uttered a riddling prophecy for the benefit of the 
elder Cyrus. ^ Phlegon of Tralles, in the second century of 
our era, wrote of Polycritus, the iEtolarch, who died soon 
after his marriage. His wife brought forth an hermaphrodite. 
The monster was taken to the market place and the people 
were deliberating on the advisability of destroying it, when 
the dead Polycritus appeared, dressed in black, and begged 
them to give him his offspring. They showed unwilHngness, 
and he straightway tore the child to pieces, devoured it, all 
but the head, and vanished. The head, which lay on the 
pavement, spoke and pronounced a long oracle in verse, 
which our author preserves.^ 

These superstitions are not dead yet in Italy, or if so, have 
very recently expired. In a Sicilian folk- tale we hear of a 
certain robber who kept by him a witch's head {testa di 
mavara) that always gave him information when he was 
about to undertake anything.^ 

Artificial heads that speak play a distinguished part in 
history and romance.^ One thinks of the brazen head 
variously ascribed to the art of Friar Bacon,^ Pope Silvester 

pp. 98-99, loi, 109-110, 1 1 7-1 18 {Opera Curiosa, 1694); Garmann, De 
Miraculis Mortuorum, 1709, Book ii, tit. 5, § 17, p. 463. 

1 Philostratus, Heroicus, v, 3 (p. 704 Olearius); Roscher, Ausfuhrliches 
Lexicon, III, i, 1168. 

2 Phlegon, Mirabilia, cap. 2 (ed. Franz, 1785, pp. 22-37, Westermann, 
Ilapa8o^oypa<t)OL, pp. 121 jff.). In cap. 3 (Franz, pp. 57 ff.), one Publius, a 
Roman general, allows himself to be eaten by a wolf; his head, which 
remains lying on the ground, speaks prophetically. 

^ Gonzenbach, Sicilianische Marchen, 1870, No. 22, I, 135 ff.; Crane, 
Italian Popular Tales, p. 67. 

* See Warton, History of English Poetry, I (1774), 401 (ed. Hazlitt, II, 

339)- 

5 Selden, De Dis Syris, \, 2; Thoms, Early Prose Romances, 2d ed., I, 
181 ff.; A. W. Ward, Old English Drama, pp. xcvii ff.; Greene's Friar Bacon 
and Friar Bungay, iv, i {Plays and Poems, ed., Collins, II, 61 ff.). Greene 



THE RETURNING HEAD 185 

11/ Grosteste,2 or Albertus Magnus,^ and utilized in Valen- 
tine and Orson ^ as well as in an Irish story. ^ Here belongs 
also the head which the Templars were accused of worship- 
ping, for this appears to have been regarded not only as an 
idol but as an oracle too.^ In one of their confessions it is 
brought into vague relations with an extraordinary piece of 
gossip from the Orient. There was a certain nobleman (so 
this distracted witness had heard) who possessed a woman's 
head that served him as a kind of Medusa against his 
enemies.^ The details are quite terrific. The unhappy 
Templar had picked up, and credited, a local legend of the 
Gulf of Satalia, told with additional circumstances of horror 
by Benedict of Peterborough ^ and copied from him by 
Roger of Hoveden.^ It is reproduced with variations in 

makes Mahound speak out of a brazen head in Alphonsus King of Arragon, 
iv, I (Collins, I, 11 2-1 15). A satirical poem by William Terilo, A Piece of 
Friar Bacons Brazen-heads Prophesie, 1604, illustrates the popularity of the 
theme (ed. Halliwell, Percy Society, 1844; Hazlitt, Early Popular Poetry, 
IV, 263 ff.). 

1 William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum, ii, 172 (Migne, Patrol. 
Lat., CLXXIX, 1 145; ed. Hardy, p. 283). 

2 Robert of Bardney, metrical Life of Grosteste, cap. 20, Wharton, Anglia 
Sacra, II, 333; Gower, Confessio Amantis, iv, 234-243 (Macaulay's edition, 
II, 307, and note, p. 502). 

3 Del Rio, Disguistiones Magicae, lib. i, cap. 4 (ed., Venice, 1616, p. 31); 
cf. Sighart, Albertus Magnus, pp. 71-72. 

* A brazen head reveals to Valentine and Orson their parentage, L'Histoire 
de Valentin et Orson, 17th century, chap. 23, pp. 65 ff.; English, Valentine 
and Orson, 1694, chaps. 28, 30, pp. 97 ff., loi ff.; The New History of Val- 
entine and Orson, 1724, chaps. 18, 20, pp. 78-79, 84-85; Historia de i due 
Nobilissimi et Valorosi Fratelli Valentino et Orsone, Venice, 1558, chap. 23, 
pp. 154 ff. Cf. Seelman, Valentin und Namelos, p. Iv. 

^ Curtin, Hero-Tales of Ireland, p. 271. 

^ Wilcke, Geschichte des Ordens der Tempelherren, 2d ed., II, 266-274; 
Lavocat, Proces des Freres et de VOrdre du Temple, pp. 352 ff. 

^ Michelet, Proces des Templiers, II, 223-224. 

8 Gesta Regis Ricardi, ed. Stubbs, Rolls Series, II, 195-196. 

3 Chronica, ed. Stubbs, Rolls Series, III, 158. 



1 86 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Maundevile's Travels.^ A resemblance is discernible to the 
eccentric version of the Perseus myth registered in the 
Chronographia of Joannes Malalas.^ 

There is a speaking and otherwise miraculous skull in one 
of the legends in the Popol Vuh} In a tale, or myth, in 
Schoolcraft, a more or less divine personage gives ord-ers 
that his own head shall be cut off and carefully treasured; it 
has strange powers, including that of speech, and is after- 
wards united with his body.^ The profoundest magic, as 
well as a very savage philosophy, may be discerned in a 
Gascon story, in which the severed head of an enchanter 
speaks, bidding the hero eat its ears, etc., in order that he 
may attain superhuman knowledge.^ It seems odd that a 
baffled magician should act with such officious benevolence 
toward his slayer. Possibly the narrative has suffered by 
oral tradition. In that case the original object of the speak- 
ing head may have been some kind of posthumous ven- 
geance, as in the famous and admirable tale of The King 
and the Physician in the Arabian Nights.^ In a Cashmirian 
variant of the widely distributed folk-tale of The Faithless 
Mother ^ the head of the monster speaks when the woman 
opens the forbidden chamber.^ There are speaking heads of 

1 Voiage and Travaile, ed. 1725, pp. 32-33; ed. Halliwell, pp. 26-27; 
The Buke of John Maundeuill, ch. 5, ed. Warner, Roxburghe Club, 1889, 
p. 14 (the Cotton MS. reads a neddere for an hede [Egerton; teste in the 
French]). Bojardo, Orlando Innamorato, book i, canto 8, sts. 47 ff., has 
something of the same kind. 

2 Book ii, p. 41 (Oxford), pp. 35-36 (Dindorf, 1831), Byzantine Corpus, 
[XIV]. 

3 Ed. Brasseur de Bourbourg, p. 93; Pohorilles, Popol Wuh, p. 30; of. 
Hartman, Journal of American Folk-Lore, XX, 148-150. 

* Algic Researches, I, 96 ff. 

B Blade, Contes populaires de la Gascogne, I, 191-192. 

6 Sixteenth Night (Galland, 1832, I, 129 ff.). 

^ See pp. 228 ff. 

8 Knowles, Folk-Tales of Kashmir ^ p. 3. 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 87 

much simple impressiveness in an Indian story from the 
North Pacific coast. ^ Everything that heart can wish about 
the preservation of heads for oracular or other purposes may 
be found in Pinza's stupendous monograph.^ 

Heads may speak by miracle as well as magic. When St. 
Edmund, the holy king of the East Angles, was killed by the 
Danes in 870, " his heed lay i-hidde among busshes, and 
spak to hem that soujt hym in the contray longage, and 
seide, ' Heere, heere, heere.' '' ^ About 1200 a skull was 
found at Vienna with lips and tongue intact. It spoke, 
declared itself to be the head of a pagan judge who had never 
passed an unjust sentence, and called for baptism.^ 

Among the miracles of St. Udalric, Bishop of Augsburg 
in the tenth century, is the following. A certain count 
invited the bishop to pay him a visit. At dinner the count's 
wife appeared, wearing a dead man's head attached to a 
chain round her neck. She ate with the dogs in a corner of 
the hall. The bishop asked for an explanation, and was 
informed by the count that this was the skull of one of his 
knights whom he had suspected of being his wife's lover. 
After prayer by the bishop, the head spoke, exonerating the 
lady. Then the holy man caused the body to be dug up and 
laid on the table, and the head was placed at its feet. In- 
stantly the trunk turned about and united with the head, 

^ Boas, Indianische Sagen, p. 285. 

2 La Conservazione delle Teste Humane, Societd Geographica Italiana, 
Memorie, VII, 305-492. Cf. also A. Reinach, Les Tites Coupees et les Tro- 
phies en Gaule, Revue Celtique, XXXIV, 38 ff., 253 £F. (especially, p. 274, 
note i). 

3 Higden, Polychronicon, book v, chap. 32 (Trevisa's English), Rolls 
edition, VI, 343. The miracle is recorded by William of Malmesbury, Gesta 
Pontificum Anglorum, book ii (ed. Stubbs, Rolls Series, p. 153), and Gesta 
Regum Anglorum, book ii, § 213 (ed. Hardy, I, 366). 

* Werner Rolewinck, De Westphalorum . . . Situ, Moribus, etc., book i, 
ch. 3, ed., 1602, p. i6. 



1 88 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

and the knight came to life and protested his innocence. 
The count restored his wife to favor, and the knight entered 
the bishop's service, in which he continued for twenty-seven 
years, when he died a natural death.^ 

Various tribes of our Indians and of the Northeast Asiatics 
have traditions of cannibaUstic demons consisting merely of 
a skull or a head, which rolls or bounds along the ground, 
pursuing to devour.^ Sometimes, like other goblins, these 
creatures woo or abduct women, commonly with the inten- 
tion of eating them.^ But they are not always malevolent. 
A buffalo skull speaks helpfully in one story.'* In another, a 
girl marries a skull. It speaks and bids her throw it into the 
fire; she obeys, and a man stands before her, — her husband 
freed from spells.^ When, as is usually the case, the pursuing 
skull or head is cannibalistic, its intended victims may 
thwart it by means of magic obstacles or the like.^ Now and 

1 Ada Sanctorum, July, II, 86 (July 4). The anecdote occurs in a collec- 
tion of " miracula et quaedam notabilia " in Additional MS. 18364 (British 
Museum), fol. 396 (14th century). See Herbert, Catalogue of Romances, 
III, 612, who refers to the Acta. For the head of a lover served up to a wife, 
see Arthur and Gorlagon, cap. 23, [Harvard] Studies and Notes in Philology and 
Literature, VIII, 162, with the parallels (VIII, 245 £f.). 

2 Sapir, Takelma Texts, University of Pennsylvania, Anthropological Publi- 
cations, II, 174. Cf. the artificial skull in Boas, The Eskimo of Baffin Bay 
and Hudson Bay, American Museum of Natural History, Bulletin, XV, 254- 

255- 

' Dorsey, The Pawnee, Mythology, pp. 31 ff., 119 £f., 447-448; Dorsey and 
Kroeber, Arapaho Traditions, Nos. 5, 6, 124, Field Columbian Museum, 
Anthropological Series, V, 8 ff,, 13-14, 278 ff. In the tale first cited (Dorsey, 
pp. 31 ff.) the head, when split, reunites. 

^ Lowie, The Assiniboine, No. 4, American Museum of Natural History, 
Anthropological Papers, IV, 143. 

^ Bogoras, Chukchee Mythology, Publications of the Jesup North Pacific 
Expedition, VIII, 28 ff. Cf. Curtin, Myths of the Modocs, pp. 189 ff., for 
what looks like a similar case of disenchantment. 

^ Dorsey and Kroeber, Arapaho Traditions, Nos. 5, 6, 35, 124, Field 
Columbian Museum, Anthropological Series, V, 8 ff., 13-14, 70-71, 278 ff. 



THE RETURNING HEAD 1 89 

then the existence of such a creature is accounted for in a 
singular way: a man, we are told, eats himself up piecemeal 
until nothing is left but his head, which then pursues people 
in mad eagerness for human flesh.^ It is not always easy to 
see any essential difference between these cannibalistic 
skulls and the ^' rolling rock " so familiar in North American 
folk-lore.2 

Some of our aborigines have traditions of the Flying 
Heads, so called, hideous demonic beings that fly through 

^ Curtin, Creation Myths of America, p. 327; Sapir, Yana Texts, Univer- 
sity of California, Publications in American Archceology and Ethnology, IX, 
115 fiF.; Dixon, in Sapir, as above, pp. 200 ff,; Dixon, Maidu Texts, No. 11, 
pp. 188 ff.; Dixon, Maidu Myths, American Museum of Natural History, 
Bulletin, XVII, 97-98. For such " disintegration " see Boas, Mythology of 
the Bella Coola Indians, Jesup North Pacific Expedition, I, 99; Jochelson, 
The Koryak, Jesup Expedition, VI, 296, 309; Boas, Kwakiutl Tales, Colum- 
bia University, Contributions to Anthropology, II, 166-167; cf. Waterman, 
Journal of American Folk-Lore, XXVII, 44, 45. In Dorsey's Traditions of 
the Osage, a man takes a second wife, whereupon his first becomes reduced 
to a head; this is put between the couple as they lie in bed; it swallows 
them and others, and afterwards pursues a little girl (Field Columbian 
Museum, Anthropological Series, VII, 21 ff.). 

2 Dorsey, Traditions of the Arikara, pp. 143-147; the same. Traditions 
of the Skidi Pawnee, Nos. 29, 62, pp. 105-106, 260-262 (see references, p. 
346); Dorsey and Kroeber, Traditions of the Arapaho, Nos. 32-34, 81, Field 
Columbian Museum, Series in American Anthropology and Ethnology, V, 
65-70, 159 ff.; Grinnell, Blackfoot Lodge Tales, pp. 165-166; Kroeber, Ute 
Tales, Journal of American Folk-Lore, XIV, 261 ff.; McDermott, Folk- 
Lore of the Flathead Indians of Idaho, Journal, XIV, 245-247; Rand, 
Legends of the Micmacs, pp. 316-317; Turner, Ethnology of the Ungava 
District, Hudson Bay Territory, Eleventh Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 
pp. 336-337; Matthews, Navaho Legends, pp. 125-126; Frank Russell, 
Explorations in the Far North, pp. 210-21 1; J. A. Mason, Myths of the Uintah 
Utes, Journal of American Folk-Lore, XXIII, 306, 3075.; Wissler and 
DuvaU, Mythology of the Blackfoot Indians, American Museum of Natural 
History, Anthropological Papers, II, 24-25; Lowie, The Northern Shoshone, 
same series, II, 262-263; Goddard, Jicarilla Apache Texts, same series, 
VIII, 105, 234; Dorsey, The Pawnee, Mythology, pp. 446-447; Mooney, 
American Anthropologist, XI (1898), 208. 



I90 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

the air and devour mortals.^ They are supposed to consist 
of a head only, but David Cusick's grotesque drawing pro- 
vides one of them with a pair of diminutive legs ! ^ A 
Wyandot legend accounts for these demons. There were 
certain giants, we are told, who lived in caverns under the 
bed of a river and who dragged canoes and passengers down 
into the depths. At last these giants were captured by the 
warriors of the Little Turtle and decapitated. Their heads 
were thrown into the river. Next morning, however, the 
heads rose from the river, and thereafter these Flying Heads 
constantly plagued the Wyandots; they were cannibals and 
vampires, they caused sickness, they bHghted the crops.^ 
Another myth declares that the bodies of the giants wriggled 
to the edge of the precipitous river bank and fell into the 
water, when they were transformed into monstrous ser- 
pents.'' Ophidians again! 

A frightful creature called Children's Death — sometimes 
male and sometimes female — who is a mere mouth smeared 
all round with dried blood, figures in the mythology of the 
Chukchee of the North Pacific coast of Asia.^ There is also 
a being who is all head in the Popol Vuh, but there seems to 
be no harm in him.^ 

A lame Philippine story concerns a couple who prayed for 
a child, even if it should be only a head. They had their 

* Converse, Myths and Legends of the New York State Iroquois , pp. 79-81 
{New York Education Department Bulletin, No. 437); Canfield, Legends of the 
Iroquois, pp. 125-126; Erminie A. Smith, Myths of the Iroquois, Second 
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 59-62; Dorman, Origin of Primitive 
Superstitions, p. 281; Hartland, Folk-Lore, XI, 191. 

2 Cusick, Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations, 2d ed. (Tuscarora 
Village, Lewiston, N. Y., 1828). Cusick's story is reprinted by Beauchamp, 
The Iroquois Trail, 1892, p. 14. 

3 Connelley, Wyandot Folk-Lore (Topeka, 1899), pp. 83-86. 

* The same p. 86. 

^ Bogoras, Chukchee Mythology, Jesup Expedition, VIII, 18 Q. 

^ Ed. Brasseur de Bourbourg, p. 79; Pohorilles, Popol Wuh, p. 25. 



THE RETURNING HEAD 191 

prayer, and the ambitious head wished to marry the chief's 
daughter.^ A far better tale of the sort is reported from 
Madagascar.2 A similar birth is soberly chronicled and 
solemnly discussed by Garmann.^ A mediaeval exemplum in 
a thirteenth-century manuscript tells of a youth who " prays 
for release from temptation; he is haunted for three years 
by a gigantic head threatening to devour him; at length the 
head joins its body, which the youth sees lying beside a pit, 
and the monster plunges into the pit and disappears." ^ 

We have roamed among many tribes in our head-hunting, 
and have gathered good store of trophies. Some of them are 
more curious than valuable, but such as they are, they 
illustrate the varied possibiUties of naive thinking on a 
simple theme. We shall hardly be called upon to trace all 
these vagrant fancies to any single source in primitive 
philosophy. Magic, miracle, and medicine are alike repre- 
sented. Rudimentary scientific observation has played its 
part, and hasty inferences from actual phenomena have 
helped to establish the tradition. Bad dreams have no 
doubt had their share. Indeed, our collectanea would make 
first-rate pabulum for the thoroughgoing Freudian psycho- 
logist. — Before dropping the subject, however, we ought 
to return to our proper topic — those mythical creatures 
whose severed heads return by nature to their bodies. 

From the evidence at hand, it seems pretty clear that the 
category to which the Green Knight originally belonged, 
before his story was wrought out, or, indeed, before he had 
any story properly so called, is the widespread category of 

^ Maxfield and Millington, Visayan Tales, Journal of American Folk- 
Lore, XIX, 106-107. 

2 Renel, Conks de Madagascar, I, 180. 

' De Miraculis Mortuorum, lib. iii, tit. i, § 135 (1709, p. 912). 

* Herbert, Catalogue of Romances, III, 472, § 14 (Egerton MS. 1117, fol. 
181&). 



192 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

dragons, water-monsters, or serpent-men. It is not to be 
supposed that all creatures who play fast and loose with 
their heads in story, are, or ever were, ophidian; for a 
peculiar faculty like this is easily transferred from one 
mysterious or supernatural being to another of a different 
order. But the evidence certainly suggests that this faculty 
belongs primarily to this particular class. 

It is often difficult to enter into the thoughts of savage 
man so as to feel any sympathy with his psychological 
theories or his views about the natural world. In this 
matter of the heads, however, we are in a better position 
than usual. It is a fact of common observation that a snake 
does not die when it is beheaded. We find Httle difficulty in 
believing the anecdote of the Italian apothecary's appren- 
tice who died from the bite of a viper's severed head that 
lay neglected among the rubbish in a corner of the shop.^ 
Wild inferences come easy to primeval science. A serpent's 
head, according to the belief of some Scottish Highlanders, 
" should be completely smashed, and removed to a distance 
from the rest of the body. Unless this is done, the serpent 
will again come alive. The tail, unless deprived of anima- 
tion, will join the body, and the head becomes a beithis, the 
largest and most deadly kind of serpent." ^ 

Again, it is a matter of common observation among 
savages and civilized men alike, that a bird does not die as 
soon as its head is cut off. We know, too, that the severed 
end of a finger will grow on again if quickly replaced and 
kept in a proper position. It is natural to infer, from all 
this, that a clean cut that severs the head from the body 
without mangling either, does not cause instant death, — 

1 Garmann, De Miraculis Mortuorum, 1709, lib. ii, tit. 5, § 19, pp. 464- 

465- 

2 J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands, Glasgow, 
1900, p. 224. 



THE RETURNING HEAD 193 

that the head still retains consciousness and is capable of 
speech or of motion of the eyehds, and even that, if quickly 
returned to the shoulders, it may reunite with the neck. 
When the executioner buffeted the head of Charlotte 
Corday, bystanders saw (or thought they saw) a deep blush 
spread over the cheek at the indignity. In the Irish Siege of 
Howth (mentioned by a poet who died in 975) the head of 
Mesgegra " at one moment flushed, and at another whitened 
again " when it appeared that Conall, his slayer, was to 
carry off the dead man's wife.^ King Charles's head opened 
its eyes and looked reproachfully at the executioner. 

These stories, whether true or not, seem half credible even 
to men of the twentieth century. When the vikings of 
Jom were about to be executed, one of them requested to be 
cut down rapidly in order that an experiment might be 
tried. He had often discussed with his comrades, he said, 
the question whether a man, if quickly beheaded, knows 
anything, and he wished to take advantage of this oppor- 
tunity to settle the problem for himself.^ The saga-man 
regards the anecdote as a mere specimen of intrepidity; but 
; to us, who have known of physicians who inoculate them- 
I selves with dreadful diseases to put their antidotes to the 
I test, the Norse pirate seems like a martyr to science — so 
close are savage men to ourselves in the essential belief that 
lies at the heart of Gawain and the Green Knight. 
j In these speculations, however, we are dealing, not with 
the history of Gawain and the Green Knight, nor even with 
the history of its Irish source, — but with their ^re-history. 
Long before The Champion's Bargain was written, many 

1 See Stokes's translation, Revue Celtique, VIII, 62-63; revised, Hull's 
Cuchullin, p. 94. 

2 Jomsvikinga Saga, chap. 53 (ed. Carl af Petersens, 1879, PP- 92-93); 
Saga Olafs Tryggvasonar, chap. 46 {Konunga S'ogur, ed. Copenhagen, 1816, 

!i, 246-247); Heimskringla, ed. Unger, p. 159. 



194 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

creatures originally serpentine had ceased to be so regarded, 
and the ability to resume a lost head had extended itself, as 
an article of the popular creed, to hags and giants not ser- 
pentine at all. The challenger in The Champion's Bargain, 
and his lineal descendant the Green Knight, are not them- 
selves ophidian, whatever their ancestors may have been in 
the backward and abysm of time. 






II. THE DEMON OF VEGETATION 

We have seen reason to believe that the general class of 
monsters who play fast and loose with their heads were, in 
the original conception, though not in the actual tale that 
we are investigating. Snakes or Serpent-Men. It is not 
impossible, however, that the particular guise in which our 
Green Knight shows himself, owes something to another 
creature of the primitive imagination or primitive philoso- 
phy. He may have taken on, in part, the qualities of a 
Wood-Deity or Demon of Vegetation.^ 

His greenness, we remember, is not merely a matter of 
clothing, but extends to his skin, to hair, beard, and eye- 
brows; his horse is also green; and he carries in his hand a 
bob of holly, " that is greatest in green when groves are 
bare "; ^ green too is the magic lace that the lady gives to 
Gawain.3 Wood-demons are commonly either dwarfs or 
giants. They are sometimes green or dressed in green, and 
they often carry a tree (frequently one torn up by the roots) 
as a staff. To their ranks may belong the Centaurs, as well 
as Silvanus and other beings of some traditional dignity.^ 
They sometimes have power to change their shape.^ 

Green men are not uncommon in folk-lore. " A ragged 

I green man '' of immense strength is an important character 

in Larminie's Bioultach; he turns out to be under spells.e 

^ Cf. Henderson, Arthurian Motifs in Gadhelic Literature, Miscellany 
I Presented to Kuno Meyer, 191 2, pp. 26-27. 

j 2 Vv. 147-150, 175 ff., 233-236, 305, 2227-2228. ^ Vv. 1832, 2517. 
I * See, in general, Mannhardt, Wold- und FeldkuUe; in particular, for green 
i color or clothing, I, 88, 11 7-1 19, 124, 138, 147 and note 2; for tree as staff, 
I I, 96, 97, 105; for the Centaurs and Silvanus, II, 46, 123. On giants as 
wood-spirits or tree-spirits, cf . Weinhold, Vienna Academy, Sitzungsberichte, 
XXVI, 290. 

^ See, for example, Mannhardt, I, 138, 140, 144, 145, 146. 
« West-Irish Folk-Tales, pp. 50 ff. 

19s 



196 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

The " thankful dead man " in Douglas Hyde's version 
appears as a green dwarf .^ There is an elemental green man 
in the Siddhi-Kiir.^ One of Curtin's Magyar tales is The 
Green Daughter of the Green King.^ There are green dogs in 
a modern Celtic tale.* Vetala, the king of the Bhuts, is 
green and rides a green horse.^ 

The Green Man of N Oman's Land is especially interesting. 
It is a Welsh Gypsy tale ^ which begins thus: " There was a 
young miller, who was a great gambler. Nobody could beat 
him. One day a man comes and challenges him. They play. 
Jack wins and demands a castle. There it is. They play 
again, and Jack loses. The man tells Jack his name is the 
Green Man of Noman's Land, and that unless Jack finds his 
castle in a year and a day he will be beheaded. The time 
goes by. Jack remembers his task, and sets out in cold and 
snow.'' Jack finds the castle, and tasks follow, the Green 
Man's daughter performing them for him. " The Green 
Man gives in, and Jack weds his daughter." The story is of 
a familiar type; ^ but the precise form in which it appears 
in Wales is interesting. Our Green Knight's head-play may 

1 Beside the Fire, pp. 18-47. ^ Julg> No. 3. 

^ Myths and Folk-Tales of the Russians, etc., pp. 477 £f. 

* Celtic Magazine, XIII, 279. 

^ Crooke, Introduction to the Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern 
India, p. 150 (cf. p. 152). ^ Groome, Gypsy Folk Tales, pp. 254-255. 

' As Groome remarks, it is identical with J. F. Campbell's Battle of the 
Birds (No. 2), fully treated by Kohler, Orient und Occident, II, 103 ff. 
(Kleinere Schriften, I, 161 ff.), where variants are given from India to 
Ireland. Others are added by Groome. Losing a game to a supernatural 
opponent is a common device to start the hero on a course of adventures. 
The following examples will sufl&ce: Celtic Magazine, XII, 12 ff., 57 ff.; 
Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, I, iff.; Mac Innes, Folk and 
Hero Tales, pp. 94 ff.; Larminie, West Irish Folk-Tales, pp. 10 ff.; Curtin, 
Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, pp. 32 ff,; J. F. Campbell, The Celtic Dragon 
Myth, pp. 103 ff., 121; Dottin, Contes Irlandais (translated from Hyde), 
pp. 68 ff., 161 ff., 190 ff.; Kennedy, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, 



THE DEMON OF VEGETATION 197 

be regarded as a kind of game in which Gawain loses; and, 
like Jack, Gawain must set out, in the winter, to search for 
the Green Man of Noman's Land; both have to submit to 
tests, nor is there any doubt that Gawain, Hke Jack, would 
have lost his head if he had failed in any essential point in 
their performance. I am far from maintaining genetic 
connection between the Welsh^Gypsy tale and the English 
romance. What concerns us here, is the folklore figure of a 
Green Man who seeks to entrap the hero. But a comparison 
is nevertheless instructive. It shows how easily the devel- 
oped Irish Hterary form of the ChaUenge might have been 
modified under the influence of some current folk-tale of 
a quest with which it had originaUy only a slight and 
accidental resemblance.^ Another and better version of the 
same folk-tale — this time from Connaught — bears the 
title of Curadh Glas an Eolaig, or " The Green Knight of 
Knowledge." The knight challenges the hero to play cards. 
The hero loses the third game and the Green Knight bids 
him neither eat nor rest till he shall find his dwelhng, and 
if he shall not find it within a year and a day, his life is 
to be the forfeit.2 Unfortunately the Irish adjective glas, 
which is applied to the challenging knight, is rather ambi- 
guous, and may mean " gray '^ as well as " green.'' 

Macdougall prints a Highland tale called the Son of the 
Knight of the Green Vesture.^ The son in question marries 

pp. 255 ff.; Curtm, Hero-Tales of Ireland, pp. 325 ff., 408 ff., 465 ff., 484 ff.; 
Cosquin, Contes populaires de Lorraine, II, 254-255; Jiriczek, Zeitschrifi fiir 
ieutsche Philologie, XXVI, 6; cf. Katha-sarit-sagara, Tawney, II, 575 ff. 
We may note the chess-play between Midir and King Eochaid Airem in the 
Tochmarc Elaine (d'Arbois, Cours, II, 315 ff.; Nettlau, Revue Celtique, XII, 
?32). Cf. [Harvard] Studies and Notes, VIII, 214 ff. 
1 See p. 137. 

^ 2 Curadh Glas an Eolaig, edited by the Rev. J. M. O'Reilly, Irish Book 
Company, 1905. 
* Folk and Hero Tales, pp. 222 ff. 



198 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

the daughter of the King of the Green Mound.^ There is 
fairy-lore enough in this story to satisfy anybody, but I do 
not see that it helps us here. In short, it is idle to accumu- 
late references to things and persons that are called green. 
Everybody knows that this is a fairy color and that folk- 
tales are fond of fees. We are just where we were before. 
The Green Knight of the English romance is somehow 
supernatural, and his color suggests the wood-deity or the 
demon of vegetation. All this we knew at the outset. 

Another point of comparison might be the decapitation. 
The Slavic noon-lady will cut off your head with her sickle 
if you cannot answer her questions.^ She is manifestly a 
demon of vegetation, as well as of the noonday. But trucu- 
lence is a trait common to many kinds of supernatural 
beings, so that this comparison does not advance us a 
particle either. 

There is, however, a " wild man '' in certain popular 
mummings who promises rather better, for he is sometimes 
green, and sometimes a " vegetation demon," and some- 
times he is killed and afterwards revives. Mannhardt has 
much to say about this personage,^ and Mr. E. K. Cham- 
bers, in his learned discussion of such dramatic festivals, is 
bold enough to equate him with our hero. His statement 
is downright and categorical: " The green man of the 
peasantry, who dies and Hves again, reappears as the Green 
Knight in one of the most famous divisions of Arthurian 
romance." ^ Mr. Cook, if a little more cautious in manner, 
is still more daring in opinion. He appears to feel quite 

1 P. 232. 2 See p. 147. 

3 Mannhardt, Wald-und FeldkuUe, I, 420, cf. 333 ff., 357, 359. See also 
the references in E. K. Chambers, The Mediceval Stage, chaps, vi-x. It is 
hardly necessary to mention Frazer's Golden Bough, distinguished alike for 
its erudition and its fantastic theories. 

* The Mediceval Stage, I, 186, and note i. 



THE DEMON OF VEGETATION 1 99 

assured that our Green Knight is the Italic tree-god Vir- 
bius.^ One is equally at liberty, so far as I can see, to 
identify him with Esus, since he carries an axe and knows 
how to use it.2 

All such conjectures have only a mythological interest — 
and they are not very good mythology either. For the 
challenger in the Irish story is neither green nor in any way 
associated with trees or vegetation, except that the hair of 
his head is bushy ! ^ He appears as green in no extant 
version of the Challenge until we reach the English romance. 
Whoever gave him that color first, whether the Enghsh poet 
or some French predecessor,^ was influenced, of course, by 
current folk-lore, and that folk-lore may have descended to 
the innovator in question from primeval ideas about the 
forces of nature. So much we must grant, but that is all. 
Neither the Irish author of The Champion's Bargain nor any 
of his successors in the line had any notion of associating the 
challenger with Celtic " probably arboreal " deities, Arician 
groves, spirits of vegetation, or the annual death and rebirth 
of the embodied vital principle. To them he was merely an 
enchanter, a shape-shifter, or else a human being under 
spells, and they wasted neither ink nor oil in mytholo- 
gizing. And so we may drop this question into limbo, with 
the parting observation that thought is free. 

1 Folk-Lore, XVII, 340-341. 

2 See the references in d'Arbois de Jubainville, Cours, VI, 173, 178. Cf. 
> Rhys, Hibhut Lectures, pp. 61 ff., 646; Reinach, Revue Celtique, XVIII, 
, 137 ff.; d'Arbois, Revue Celtique, XIX, 246 ff.; XX, 89 ff. For trees cut 

down with one blow by a supernatural creature see, e.g., J. S. Gardiner, 
\ Journal of the Anthropological Institute, XXVII, 511; Kroeber, Cheyenne 
\ Tales, Journal of American Folk-Lore, XIII, 173. Compare the West 

Finnish axeman in Abercromby, The Pre- and Proto-historic Finns, I, 326- 

1327. 

2 P. II. * Pp. 140, 141. 



III. DISENCHANTMENT BY DECAPITATION.^ 

Decapitation as a means of disenchantment occurs in both 
The Carl of Carlisle ^ and The Turk and Gawain.^ In the 
Carl, the bespelled person is a cruel monster until he is 
released from enchantment; in the Turk, he takes the role 
of Helpful Attendant, performing superhuman tasks as a 
substitute for the hero. In both, he urges the reluctant 
Gawain to cut off his head,^ and this is the final act in a 
somewhat complicated process of disenchantment. The 
efficacy of decapitation in undoing a spell is a widespread 
popular belief, and many of the tales in which it occurs are 
otherwise parallel either to The Carl of Carlisle or to The 
Turk and Gawain. In what follows, there is, of course, no 
attempt at exhaustiveness. My purpose has been to illus- 
trate the belief by means of typical examples, and to bring 
out its significance as an article of the popular creed. 

We may begin with the Decapitation of Helpful Animals. 

In a Gaelic tale a serviceable steed bids the hero " take a 
sword and . . . take the head off me." The hero objecting, 
the horse replies: " In me there is a young girl under spells, 
and the spells will not be off me till the head is taken off 
me." In the same story a serviceable raven makes a similar 
request: " A young lad under spells am I, and they will not 
be off me till the head comes off me." The pair are trans- 
formed and make a fine couple.^ This is an instructive 

1 Reprinted, with a few changes, from The Journal of American Folk- 
Lore, January-March, 1905, XVIII, 1-14. 

2 See pp. 87 ff. 

3 See pp. 119 £f. 

* There is no beheading in the Porkington version of the Carl (edited by- 
Madden), but this text has omitted the motif oi disenchantment altogether, 
to the manifest injury of the romance. 

^ The Rider of Grianaig, J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West High- 



DISENCHANTMENT BY DECAPITATION 20I 

example because it is outspoken. Usually, however, and 
more properly, the animal does not tell the hero or heroine 
why the beheading is to be performed. So, for instance, in a 
Swedish tale, Den underbare Hasten, the horse simply asks 
the hero to strike off his head, and when this is done he 
recovers his proper shape, that of a prince, the brother of the 
heroine.^ 

In the Lettish epic Needrischu Widwuds,^ the hero Wide- 
wut is much helped by a werewolf (wilkata), who, among 
other services, replaces the. heads of the hero's two com- 
panions and brings the dead men to Hf e by means of a magic 
elixir. The wolf then insists on being beheaded in his turn, 
and, when his request is granted, is transformed into a 
handsome youth. 

lands, No. 58, III, 16-18; cf. Curtin, Hero-Tales of Ireland, pp. 354-355. See 
also The Black Horse, from Campbell's manuscript collections, Jacobs, More 
Celtic Fairy Tales, pp. 57 ff., and, on the supposed Indian provenience. Hart- 
land, Folk-Lore, V, 331-332. Cf. Leskien u. Brugman, Litaiiische Volkslieder 
u. Marchen, p. 386, and Wollner's notes, pp. 537-542. 

^ Eva Wigstrom, Sagor ock Afventyr upptecknade i Skane, p. 74, in Nyare 

Bidrag till Kdnnedom, etc., vol. V. In the Norwegian ballad of A'smund 

Fregdegcevar, the hero, who has rescued the king's daughter from the land of 

j the trolls by the aid of a magic horse, strikes off the horse's head: " det$ 

I vart ein kristen mann," namely, the queen's yoimgest brother, Adalbert, 

i son of the English king (Landstad, Norske Folkeviser, No. i, sts. 62-63, 

I p. 21). Cf. Curtin, Myths and Folk-Tales of the Russians, etc., pp. 293, 405, 

j in both of which the horse makes the reason known; Rittershaus, Die neu- 

I isldndischen Volksmdrchen, p. 98. Bayard, the helpful horse in Le Prince 

i et son Cheval (Cosquin, Contes pop. de Lorraine, I, 133 ff.), does not ask to 

be disenchanted, but simply requests his dismissal. He is certainly bespelled, 

however: " Je suis prince aussi bien que vous: je devais rendre cinque 

j services a im prince " (I, 137). A Christianized incident of this sort is in 

I Vemaleken, Osterreichische Kinder- u. Hausmdrchen, No. 46, p. 252: a horse 

} says, " Hew off my head," and when this is done, a white dove flies forth 

kand up to heaven. 

2 Put together by Lautenbach-Jusmina, song 17, Jelgawa, 1891, pp. 
211 ff.; see summary by H. Wissendorff de Wissukuok, Revue des Traditions 
; Fopidaires, XII, 160-161. 



202 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

The serviceable cat becomes a princess on being decapi- 
tated in Mme. d'Aulnoy's La Chatte Blanche, and in the 
Norwegian Herrepeer (Sir Peter). ^ In Perrault's Le Chat 
Botte there is no beheading and no disenchantment, but, 
instead, a delicious specimen of French wit: " Le Chat 
devint grand Seigneur, et ne courut plus apres les souris, que 
pour se divertir." ^ In a Tyrolese story the hero, at the 
cat's request, takes the animal by the hind legs and dashes 
her against the hearth till he sees her no more. Immediately 
she reappears as a beautiful maiden, whom he marries.* 

In the Welsh Gypsy tale of The Black Dog of the Wild 
Forest, two helpful httle dogs. Hear-all and Spring-all, who 
have saved the hero's life, require him to cut off their heads, 
threatening to devour him if he refuses. As Jack travelled 
on, grieving, ^' he turned his head round at the back of his 
horse, looking behind him, and he saw two of the hand- 
somest young ladies coming as ever he saw in his life." They 
are Hear-all and Spring-all.'* Similarly, three black dogs in 
a German tale, who have served the king well, are beheaded 
at their own request: " Siehe, da standen nun einmal drei 
Konigssohne." ^ 

^ Asbjj^msen og Moe, Norske Folkeeventyr, 2d ed., 1852, p. 162 (translated 
by Dasent, Popular Tales from the Norse, 2d ed., 1859, p. 347); so in Kong 
Knudjra Kn^lande (variant), p. 431, and in another version (in which the 
cat becomes a prince), p. 433. See Lang, Perratdfs Popular Tales, 1888, 
Introd., p. kxii. Asbj^rnsen and Moe cite a number of parallels. Cf. the 
German marchen of Der Federkonig (Haltrich, Deutsche Volksmdrchen aus dent 
Sachsenlande in Sieben-biirgen, 3d ed., 1882, p. 50). In Das weisse Katzchen 
(Kuhn u. Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, p. 334), the kitten's paws and 
head are cut off, and the transformation begins on the amputation of the 
first paw. 

2 Lang's ed., as above, p. 35. 

3 Zingerle, Kinder-und Hausmdrchen, 1852, No. 9, p. 52; ed. 1870, p. 42. 
^ Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, pp. 267-271. There are unspelled green 

dogs (which remind us of the fancy brachets in French romance) in a tale in 
the Celtic Magazine, XIII, 279. ^ Haltrich, as above, pp. 107-108. 



DISENCHANTMENT BY DECAPITATION 203 

In the West Highland tale of Mac Iain Direach, the fox, 
who has assisted the hero materially, remarks as they come 
to a spring by the side of the road: " Now, Brian, unless 
thou dost strike off my head with one blow of the White 
Glave of Light into this spring,^ I will strike off thine." 
Brian compUes, and " in the wink of an eye, what should 
rise up out of the well, but the son of the King that was 
father of the Sun Goddess." ^ 

When we pass from Helpful Animals who are unspelled by 
decapitation to Helpful Servants who are released from 
enchantment by the same means, we approach sensibly 
nearer to the situation in The Turk and Gawain. Frequently 
(as in that poem) the helpful attendant wears a monstrous 
or dwarfish likeness until he is disenchanted.^ 

In the Welsh Gypsy story of An Old King and his Three 
Sons in England, Prince Jack has been entertained and 
helped at various stages of his journey by three brothers, 
whose heads, at their request, he cuts off and throws into a 

^ The spring is significant. Immersion in water or some other liquid is 
often a means of dissolving a charm, and sometimes operates as one of 
several measures conducing to that end. See Child, Ballads, I, 338, 507; 
II, 505; III, 505, and add Laistner, Ratsel der Sphinx, § 31, I, 252 £f. 

2 J. F. Campbell, No. 46, II, 358-359. Campbell's story was derived 
from John Macdonald the tinker, whom Mr. Hindes Groome makes out to 
have been a Gypsy (Gypsy Folk-Tales, pp. Iviii-lxi; cf. Nutt, Folk-Lore, 
X, 241-242). It is reprinted, with valuable notes, in Groome's Gypsy Folk- 
Tales, pp. 283-289, 

' Cormac's Glossary, s. v. priill, Stokes, Three Irish Glossaries, pp. 36-38, 
and O'Donovan's translation, ed. Stokes, pp. 135-137; O'Curry, Manners 
and Customs, II, 89; Nutt, Revue Celtique, XII, 194-195; the same, Holy 
Grail, pp. 139-141, 205-206; Zimmer, Kuhn's Ztschr., XXVIII, 438; 
Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe, ed. Connellan, Ossianic Society, Transactions, 
V, 114 £f.; Life of S. Fechin of Fore, §§ 37-38, ed. Stokes, Revue Celtique, 
XII, 342-345; Maclnnes, Folk and Hero Tales, pp. 91-93 (with Nutt's note, 
pp. 454, 467-468); Maynadier, Wife of Bath's Tale. pp. 65 ff,, 195 ff.; J. F. 
Campbell, III, 299-300; Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, pp. 235 ff.; 
Macdougall, Folk and Hero Tales, pp. 35 ff.; Hyde, Beside the Fire, pp. 18 ff. 



204 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

well. What happens may be seen from the case of the eldest 
of the three: " No sooner he does it, and flings his head in 
the well, than up springs one of the finest young gentlemen 
you would wish to see; and instead of the old house and the 
frightful looking place, it was changed into a beautiful hall 
and grounds." There is complete disenchantment, it will be 
observed, of place as well as of person. The oldest brother 
is described as a frightful creature: " He could scarcely walk 
from his toenails curling up like rams' horns that had not 
been cut for many hundred years, and big long hair," and so 
on.^ 

In the Irish Mac Cool, Faolan, and the Mountain, an old 
forester, who has assisted Dyeermud and Faolan in some 
very perilous adventures, asks Dyeermud to cut off his 
head. Dyeermud consents after the old man has told him 
that he is under enchantment and cannot be otherwise 
released. " He cut off his head with one blow, and there 
rose up before him a young man of twenty-one years." He 
had been enchanted by his stepmother.^ 

Sometimes the person disenchanted by beheading is not 
a helpful animal or attendant, but the heroine of the story. 
There is a good instance in the Saxon tale of Sausewind.^ 
Here a woman who lives with the ogre Sausewind tells him 
of three enchanted princesses and gets from him the answer : 
" Wenn einer ein Schwert nimmt und schlagt dir den Kopf 
ab, so bist du die eine; dort unten am Wasser steht ein 
Erlenbusch, wenn davon der rechte Ast . . . abgehauen 

1 Groome, In Gypsy Tents, 1880, pp. 299-317; the same, Gypsy Folk- 
Tales, No. 55, pp. 220-232; see also Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 1891, 
III, 1 10-120. From the first of these publications the tale was reproduced, 
with changes and comments of which Mr. Hindes Groome complains {Gypsy 
Folk-Tales, p. 232), by Jacobs, More English Fairy-Tales, pp. 132-145, 
232-233. 2 Curtin, Hero-Tales, pp. 510-511. 

3 Schambach u. Miiller, Niedersdchsische Sagen u. Marchen, pp. 260 fif. 



DISENCHANTMENT BY DECAPITATION 205 

wird, so ist das die zweite; und oben am Wasser steht noch 
ein Busch, wird davon ebenfalls ein Ast abgehauen, so ist 
das die dritte; dann sind alle drei wieder beisammen.'^ A 
visitor — a young man — then effects the disenchantment 
in the way prescribed. Again, in the Saxon tale of Der 
dumme Hans (a variant of a well-known marchen),^ Hans 
serves a mouse, the mistress of an enchanted castle, for three 
years. At the end of the third year, the mouse bids him beat 
her till she is covered with blood (blutrunsiig) . He does so. 
Immediately the castle is disenchanted and full of life; the 
mouse becomes a crown-princess and marries Hans. In a 
variant,^ a cat takes the place of the mouse, and Hans has to 
cut wood during his three years of service, make a huge fire, 
and finally throw the cat into the flames. 

Sometimes the disenchanted person is a prince, and the 
maiden who releases him wins him as a husband. Thus in a 
West Highland tale ^ which is a variant of the well-known 
Frog Prince, the frog, for whom the girl has made a bed 
beside her own, finally says: " ' There is an old rusted glave 
behind thy bed, with which thou hadst better take off my 
head, than be holding me longer in torture.' She took the 
glave and cut the head off him. When the steel touched 
him, he grew a handsome youth; and he gave many thanks 
to the young wife, who had been the means of putting off 
him the spells, under which he had endured for a long time." 

^ Schambach u. Miiller, Nierdersachsische Sagen u. Mdrchen, pp. 268 ff. 

2 The same, p. 368. This story has great similarities to the Swedish 
mdrchen of Den Fortrollade Grodan (Hylten-Cavallius and Stephens, Svenska 
Folk-Sagor och Afventyr, No. 15, 1, 251 ff.), translated by Thorpe, Yule-Tlde 
Stories, pp. 226 ff. (The Enchanted Toad). In Afanasief, vol. V, No. 28 
(Ralson, Russian Folk-Tales, p. 134), a helpful bull-calf tells the hero to 
kill him and burn his carcass; from the ashes there spring a horse, a dog, 
and an apple tree, all three of which play an important part in the next act 
of the drama. 

3 J. F. Campbell, No. 33, II, 130 ff. 



2o6 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

In an Annandale version of The Frog Prince, the frog asks 
the girl to cut off his head with an axe.^ In Grimm's version 
and some others, the frog is dashed against the wall by the 
girl in anger at its request to be taken into her bed, and the 
transformation follows. ^ 

The Frog Prince is particularly interesting, since it com- 
bines, in some of its versions, disenchantment by personal 
contact with disenchantment by decapitation or by some 
other method of killing the magical body. In some forms 
of the great class of " animal-spouse '' tales, the mysterious 
husband is a man by night and an animal (frog, serpent, 
wolf, etc.) by day, and lays aside his beast- skin when he 
assumes human shape.^ This gives us a clear insight into 

* R. Chambers, Popular Rhymes of Scotland, 1842, p. 52 (ed. of [1870], 
pp. 88-89), from C. K. Sharpe, who learned it from a nurse about 1784. 

2 See R. Kohler, Orient u. Occident, II, 330; Landau, Ztschr. f. vergl. 
Litteraturgeschichte, I, 17. There is an English version from Holderness in 
Jones and Kropf , Folk-Tales oj the Magyars, Folk-Lore Society, pp. 404-405, 
in which, as in a version of The Frog Prince given by F. Pfaff in his Mdrchen 
aus Lobenfeld (Alemannia, XXVI, 87, 88), the frog is taken into bed, but 
there is neither smashing nor decapitation. In Haltrich, Deutsche Volks- 
mdrchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Siehenhiirgen, 3d ed., 1882, p. 37, a little 
creature, apparently a dwarf or elf, who has been changed into a toad by 
enchantment, resumes his proper shape when the toad is smashed to pieces. 
Cf. Laistner, Ratsel der Sphinx, I, 59. 

3 On the Frog Prince or Princess, and on the burning of the frog (or 
other) skin or of the whole frog to effect the transformation or to ensure its 
permanence, see Benfey, Pantschatantra, I, Einl. § 92, pp. 266-269 (where 
there are many references). There is some good material in De Gubernatis, 
Zoological Mythology, II, 376 ff. See also Der Prinz mit der Schweinshaut, 
Kohler, Kleinere Schriften, I, 315 ff. A Zulu story of a prince in serpent 
form (Callaway, Nursery Tales of the Zulus, I, 321 ff.) is a fine example of 
confusion between a person who really has the shape of a serpent and one 
who is disguised by being clad or inclosed in a serpent's skin. The narrator 
cannot keep the distinction in mind at all. For one shape by day, another 
by night, see Child, Ballads, I, 290; IV, 454; V, 289; Maynadier, The Wife 
of Bath's Tale, 1901, pp. 201 ff.; Kroeber, Cheyenne Tales, No. 18, Journal 
of American Folk-Lore, XIII, 181. Many references for the transformation 
of animal spouses are collected by S. Prato, Bulletin de Folklore, I, 316-335. 



DISENCHANTMENT BY DECAPITATION 207 

the real meaning of disenchantment by beheading. We 
shall return to the point later. 

Especially important for the illustration of The Carl of 
Carlisle are the instances in which the bespelled person who 
is released by decapitation is a cruel and murderous demon 
or monster until he is relieved from enchantment. This 
comes out clearly in the first adventure of Art and Balor 
Beimenach} 

The Highland tale of The Widow and her Daughters ^ is 
another case in point. It is a Bluebeard story, curiously 
modified by the motif of unspelling decapitation. A great 
gray horse (who is also called a king, and who apparently is 
a man by night) ^ abducts a widow's three daughters one 
after another. He decapitates the first two for entering a 
forbidden chamber. The third escapes by a ruse and reaches 
her mother's house. Her lover pursues " in a wild rage." 
" When he reached the door he drove it in before him. She 
was standing behind the door, and she took his head off with 
1 the bar. Then he grew a king's son, as precious as ever 
came," and they were married.^ 

1 Curtin, Hero-Tales, pp. 312 ff. See p. 151, above. 

2 J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, No. 41, II., 265 ff. 
.See Campbell's references, II, 275. Kohler, Orient and Occident, II, 679 
{Kleinere Schrijten, I, 256-257), and Jahrb.f. rom. LitL, VII, 151 ff. {Kleinere 
Schriften, I, 312 ff.), adds little that helps us here. See also Laistner, Rdtsel 
der Sphinx, II, loi. In Die singende Rose (Zingerle, Kinder-u. Hausmdrchen, 
2d ed., 1870, No. 30, p. 154), an old graybeard makes the princess strike off 
his head; a key comes out of it, which opens all the doors and chests in the 
castle. 

3 This may be said to be implied, though it is nowhere stated. 

* In a variant reported by Campbell (II, 274-275), the transformation is 
iinissing. Here the girl beheads the giant (who is previously called a horse) 
with a sword and holds it on the spinal marrow till this cools, in order that 
the head may not go on again. This is clearly the proper ending. It is 
, instructive for our present purpose to observe how the idea that beheading 
releases from enchantment has affected the catastrophe in the other version. 



2o8 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

The very formidable giant called the Bare-Stripping 
Hangman, in the Gaelic tale of that name/ turns out to be 
under spells, from which he is released when the egg which 
contains his life has been crushed, and when his hands and 
feet have been cut off and cast into a fire. '' As soon as the 
hair of the head was singed and the skin of the feet burnt, 
the very handsomest young man they ever beheld sprang 
out of the fire." He is the king's younger brother, ^' who 
was stolen in his childhood." This is also an instructive 
example. The Bare-Stripping Hangman belongs to the 
class of giants who have no soul in their body, — Koshchei 
the Deathless, corps-sans-dme, Punchkin, and the rest,^ — - 
and should be destroyed, not disenchanted. By the addition 
of the disenchantment motif, the monster is made into a 
bespelled mortal.^ 

The idea that fierce or destructive creatures need only to 
be subdued or disenchanted to make them kindly, or even to 
win them in marriage, is famiUar enough from the story of 
Brynhildr. An instructive instance from North America is 
the Dakota legend of two cannibalistic wives who wish to 
kill their husbands, but become harmless when freed from 
the spell. The phrase is, " He made them good." ^ There 

1 Macdougall, Folk and Hero Tales, pp. 76 £f. 

2 See Cosquin, Contes pop. de Lorraine, I, 173 £f.; Hartland, Legend of 
Perseus, index, under external soul; Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, pp. 84 ff.; 
Curtin, Russian Myths and Folk-Tales, pp. 165 ff.; J. W. Wolf, Deutsche 
Mdrchen u. Sagen, pp. 87-93; Rand, Legends of the Micmacs, p. 245; Kobler, 
Orient u. Occident, II, 100-103 (Kleinere Schriften, I, 158-161); Frazer 
Golden Bough, 1890, II, 2962., 2d ed., 1900; III, 351 ff.; Seklemian, The 
Golden Maiden and other Folk Tales and Fairy Stories told in Armenia, Cleve- 
land and New York, 1898, p. 133; Friis, Lappiske Eventyr og Folkesagn, pp. 
46, 51; Toy, Introduction to the History of Religions, p. 17. 

^ Cf. a similar confusion in Maspons y Labr6s, Lo Rondallayre, Quentos 
populars Catalans, No. 27, II, 104-110. 

* S. R. Riggs, Dakota Myths, in Contributions to North American Eth- 
nologyj IX, 141-142. 



DISENCHANTMENT BY DECAPITATION 209 

is a very interesting parallel in the wild Armenian tale of 
Zoolvisia, which also shows the confusion between an 
immortal won as a bride and a mortal released from spells.^ 

A few other examples of disenchantment by decapitation 
may be cited to show how readily this feature attaches itself 
; to almost any kind of tale of supernatural creature. 

In a German tale a girl hears night after night a voice 
calling on her to rise. At last she gets out of bed and sees a 
woman, who asks her to come and free her. The girl follows 
through a long subterranean passage, entering at length a 
brilliantly lighted hall. Here sit three black men at a table, 
writing, and on the table lie two bright swords. " Take one 
of these swords," says the woman, " and cut off my head: 
so bin ich erlost.'^ The girl is about to obey, when her 
brother, who has followed her, interferes. The woman seizes 
the girl angrily and throws her violently to the floor, so 
violently that she becomes a heap of ashes. Then there is a 
loud noise, and palace and all disappear. ^ 
1 A cowherd is besought by a White Lady to strike off her 
head, since he alone, she says, can release her. He alleges, 

I 1 A king's son and his companions follow an antelope into a forest, where 
I they find a tent by a fountain. Within is a table spread with delicious viands, 
jrhe prince does not eat or drink, like his companions, but explores the 
1 neighborhood and is shocked to find, not far from the tent, a heap of human 
I skeletons. The food and water are poisoned, and all his companions die. 
Soon horsemen approach and pillage the dead men, the prince looking on 
from a place of concealment. The robber leader turns out to be a beautiful 
/irago, Zoolvisia, with whom he falls in love. She it was who had enticed 
lunters to the spot in the form of an antelope. The youth visits Zoolvisia's 
j;astle and manages to deprive her of the talisman on which her power 
depends. " You have overcome me," says Zoolvisia; " you are brave and 
i I real hero worthy of me. No one except you has ever heard my voice and 
ived. Now my talisman is broken, and I have become a mere woman." 
i Thereupon she accepts the prince as her husband. Seklemian, The Golden 
Maiden and other Folk Tales and Fairy Stories told in Armenia, 1898, pp. 59 ff. 
2 Kuhn, Mdrkische Sagen u. Mdrchen, No. 94, pp. 99-100. 



2IO GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

in excuse, that he has no axe. She fetches one with a silver 
handle, but he runs away. In another form of the same 
story, the White Lady brings with her a block, a broad-axe, 
and a bunch of keys. She tells the herd that she is under a 
ban (verwunscht) , and begs him to cut her head off before 
noon, in order to release her. She promises him great 
treasures. He delays too long, and she vanishes, declaring 
that not for another hundred years will one be born who can 
set her free.^ This is an ordinary legend of a White Lady, 
the only peculiarity consisting in the manner of disenchant- 
ment: kissing is far more common.2 In another version the 
White Lady conducts the peasant into a hill and gives him 
treasure, which, however, disappears when twelve o'clock 
strikes and the blow has not been dealt.^ 

Disenchantment by beheading is, by a singular confusion, 
introduced into a Swabian version of the widespread story 
of the Thankful Dead Man. A bird flies to KarFs window 
with a dagger in its beak and tells him to cut off its head. 
The bird has assisted him and Karl is unwilHng but at last 
he obeys. The head of the bird falls into the room; the 
trunk flies away, and there stands before Karl the spirit of 
the merchant whose corpse he had ransomed.^ 

So far, we have confined our attention, in the main, to 
decapitation as a means of unspeUing, but we have compared 
a few stories in which some other forms of violent death 

^ Schambach u. Miiller, Niedersachsische Sagen u. Miirchen, No. io6, pp. 
77-78. 

2 See examples in Child, Ballads, I, 307 fif., 338, note; II, 502, 504; III, 
504; IV, 454; V, 214, 290; Schofield, Studies on the Liheaus Desconus, in 
Studies and Notes, IV, 199 ff. 

^ Schambach u. Miiller, No. 107, p. 79. 

^ E. Meier, Deutsche Volksmdrchen aus Schwaben, No. 42, p. 151. Cf. 
Simrock, Der gute Gerhard u. die dankbaren Todten, Bonn, 1856, p. 57. On 
the Thankful Dead, see Hippe, Herrig's Archiv, LXXXI, 141 ff., and 
Gerould, The Grateful Dead, 1908. 



DISENCHANTMENT BY DECAPITATION 211 

have the same effect. Beheading, then, is only a special 
mleans of putting to death: the main point is to kill the 
enchanted body. Thus in the Irish Mac Cool, Faolan, and 
the Mountain, Faolan pierces a man with his sword in the 
darkness. " The man fell dead; and then, instead of the 
old man that he seemed at first, he rose up a fresh young 
man of twenty-two years." He was Faolan^s uncle, and 
could not be freed from enchantment till pierced with a 
particular sword, which Faolan carried.^ 

Transformation from a dwarf to a man, as in The Turk 
and Gawain, occurs in an Austrian tale, Der erldste Zwerg. 
A laborer gives a dwarf such a stroke in the head that he 
falls dead; but he immediately becomes a beautiful youth 
and thanks the laborer for his '* Erlosung." ^ 

The Kathd-sarit-sdgara tells of a Vidyadhara who has 
been compelled by a curse to take the form of a camel. He 
is to be restored only when he is killed in that form by a 
certain king, — which happens.^ So, in the same collection, 
a Yaksha is doomed by a curse to be a lion till he is killed by 
a certain king with an arrow. This happens, and he regains 
his human form.^ 

The following is perhaps merely an anecdote of condign 
punishment after death, not an instance of disenchantment. 
A Senn in the Watthenthal saw a red bullock, which ad- 
vanced in a threatening way. He caught him by the horns 
and forced him over the brink of a ravine. The bullock fell 
and was dashed to pieces. Up came the spirit of another 
Senn, and thanked him for his release. He had masquer- 

^ Curtin, Hero-Tales, pp. 495-496. The incident is really out of place in 
this tale, which, at this point, is a case of the attempt to resuscitate dead 
warriors (the " Hilda-saga "). 

2 Vernaleken, Osterreichische Kinder- u. Hausmarchen, p. 171. 

' Bk. xii, ch. 69, Tawney, II, 141-142. 

4 Bk. i, ch. 6, Tawney, I, 37. 



212 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

aded in this shape as a punishment for once having thrown 
a peasant's bullock into this chasm.^ 

Often a wound that is not sufficient to cause death is 
enough to effect a disenchantment, so as to make the person 
who suffers it return to his proper shape. Indeed, the mere 
drawing of blood may be all that is required. So in a story 
from Annam, a farmer, while cutting grass, accidentally 
amputates the tail of a serpent. The snake immediately 
becomes a fine young man.^ Again, in a story from Brit- 
tany, a beautiful woman has been changed into a turtle. 
Two men are fighting for her hand. Throwing herself 
between them to end the combat, she is wounded, and, as 
soon as her blood flows, her metamorphosis is at an end.^ 
In a legend of Auvergne a wicked baron is condemned for 
his crimes to wander as a loup-garou till a Christian shall 
make his blood flow. Wounded by a woodcutter, he resumes 
his human form and dies instantly.^ In a Lapland tale a 
lad draws blood from the hand of one of two fairy maidens 
who are dancing about him. Instantly the boatload of per- 
sons among whom the women have come vanishes, boat and 
all. Only the maiden remains. ''Now you must take me to 
wife," says she, ''since you have drawn blood upon me."^ 

In a Gypsy story from Transylvania, two wild geese, on 
being shot, fall to the ground as two beautiful maidens.^ In 

1 Von Alpenberg, Deutsche Alpensagen, No. 98, pp. 96-97. 

2 Landes, Contes et Legendes Annamites, pp. 12-13. In a Tyrolese story, 
a bride accidentally steps on her snake-husband's tail and crushes it, where- 
upon he becomes a handsome prince: Schneller, Marchen u. Sagen aus 
Walschtirol, No. 25, p. 65 (see Crane, Italian Popular Tales, pp. 324-325, 
with the references). 

^ Sebillot, Contes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne, [I], 13-14. 
^ Antoinette Bon, Revue des Trad. Pop., V, 217-218 (reproduced by 
S6billot, Litt. Orale de V Auvergne, p. 231). 

^ Friis, Lappiske Eventyr og Folkesagn, No. 7, pp. 24-25, cf. p. 39. 

8 Von Wlislocki, Marchen u. Sagen der transylvanischen Zigeuner^ No. 14, 



DISENCHANTMENT BY DECAPITATION 21 3 

a Maori legend, the god Maui, in pigeon-form, is hit with a 
stone, and he immediately turns into a man.^ A precisely 
similar incident is found in the Irish Wooing of Emer: 
Derbforgaill, daughter of the King of Lochlann, wishing for 
the love of CuchuHnn, takes the form of a bird and flies to 
Ulster, along with one of her maids, who is also in bird- 
likeness. CuchuHnn wounds her with a stone from a sling. 
Immediately both resume their mortal shape. The rest of 
the saga does not now concern us.^ In the Latin De Rebus 
Eiherniae Admirandis, as well as in the Mirahilia in Todd's 
Irish Nennius,^ there is an account of a man who threw a 
stone and brought down a swan. Running to pick up the 

p. $S' In a Lithuanian tale, St. George (lurgis), tired with hunting, sits 
down on a stone; out comes a black serpent and creeps towards him; he 
shoots her down and she immediately becomes a beautiful maid, whom he 
marries: Veckenstedt, Mythen, Sagen und Legenden der Zamaiten, I, 289-290. 
Veckenstedt's collection is discredited (see Karlowicz, Melusine, V, 121 ff.), 
but this incident must be substantially correct. 

^ BuUer, Forty Years in New Zealand, London, 1878, p. 185. 

2 Tochmarc Entire, translated by Kuno Meyer, Archaological Review, I, 
304 (same, revised, in Hull, Cuchullin, p. 82); see ^riu, V, 214. Cf. Zimmer, 
Haupt's Ztschr., XXXII, 217-218; Kuno Meyer, Revue Celtique, XI, 437- 
438; Nutt's note in Mac Innes, Folk and Hero Tales, p. 477; Hartland, 
Legend of Perseus, III, 50; the Modena Perceval, Weston, Legend of Sir 
Perceval, II, 51-55. 

3 An hexameter list of the Wonders of Ireland, printed by Thomas 
Wright, Reliquiae Antiquae, II, 103-107. This is No. 18 in the list (p. 105), 
and No. 21 in that given in Todd's Irish Nen7iius, pp. 2 10-2 11. It does not 
occur in Giraldus Cambrensis, Topographia Hibernica, ii, 4ff, (Opera, 
Rolls Series, V, 80 ff.), nor in the Norse Speculum Regale (see Kuno Meyer, 
Folk-Lore, V, 299 ff.). Clearly by "demons " we are to understand "fairies." 
The idea that persons thought to be dead have really been abducted by the 
fairies is common in Ireland and elsewhere. It underlies the beautiful Middle 
English romance of Sir Orfeo, which, as the present writer has conjectured, 
may be based on a combination of the Irish tale of the Wooing of Etain with 
the story of Orpheus and Eurydice (American Journal of Philology, VII, 
176 ff.; Studies and Notes, VIII, 196, note; cf. Brandl, Paul's Grundriss, 
II, 630; Bugge, Arkivfor Nordisk Filologi, VII, 108; Herz, Spielmannshuch, 
2d ed., pp. 361-362). 



214 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

bird, he found it was a woman. She told him that she was 
thought to have died, but that really she was carried off in 
the flesh by demons. He restored her to her astonished 
relatives. In a German story, Hans cuts and slashes among 
a lot of animals with a sword, whereupon they are disen- 
chanted and become mortals.^ 

We have already seen that decapitation, etc., must have 
been regarded as a slaying of the enchanted body (the 
beast or bird form) and therefore as the release of the human 
shape, so that the article of the primitive creed which we 
are studying has its close association with the belief in swan- 
maidens and werewolves and their feather- garment or 
beast-skin. The real (human) body was thought of as clad 
in the enchanted body or covered by it. This comes out 
with perfect clearness in those stories in which the en- 
chanted animal is to be opened or skinned, and in which, 
when this is done, the real person emerges from the skin or 
belly. 

Thus the Breton Peronic kills and skins the enchanted 
horse at its own request. He is much surprised " de voir 
sortir de sa peau un beau prince." ^ In the same collection, 
a black cat, born of a woman, asks to be placed on its back 
on a table and to have its belly ripped up with a sword. 
This done, " il en sortait aussitot un beau prince." ^ 

A Catalan story has this feature in a singularly compli- 
cated form. A wolf who has guided the cast-ofif daughter of 

1 Vernaleken, Osterreichische Kinder- u. Hausmarchen, No. 54, p. 316. 

2 Luzel, Conies populaires de Basse-Bretagne, II, 66-67; cf. the modem 
Irish Story of Conn-eda, translated by N. O'Kearney, Cambrian Journal, II, 
loi ff., 1855 (reprinted in Folk-Lore Record, II, 188-190, and by Yeats, 
Irish Fairy and Folk Tales, pp. 306 ff.). 

3 Luzel, III, 166. So also in Le Chat et les deux Sorcieres (III, 131), 
which is in effect another version of Le Chat Noir. Something similar may 
once have stood in The Red Pony (Larminie, West Irish Folk-Tales, p. 215), 
where the disenchantment (p. 218) is confused and distorted. 



DISENCHANTMENT BY DECAPITATION 21 5 

a king to his palace, gives her elaborate directions for his 
own disenchantment. Accordingly the girl builds a fire; kills 
the wolf; rips him up; catches the dove that emerges; puts 
the dead wolf in the fire; extracts an egg from inside the 
dove; breaks it, — and there emerges a beautiful prince, 
who marries the girl.^ 

A queer variation of the skinning process occurs in a 
Swedish tale, Kidet ock Kungen. A kid has become the 
trusted counsellor of a king. One day he bids the king 
behead him, turn his skin inside out, and force it on the 
flayed body again. It was a hard job; but when it was 
finished, there stood a handsome prince whom the king 
greeted as his son.^ Still more elaborate are the directions 
given by a helpful ass (a prince under enchantment) in a 
Faeroe story: '' You must chop off my head and tail, skin 
me, cut off my legs, put the head where the tail was and the 
tail in the neck, turn my hoofs up toward my legs, and sew 
my hide together about me with the hair inside." ^ Here 
the symbolism of reversing a spell is carried out in a gro- 
tesquely thoroughgoing fashion. Compare, for a part of the 
process, the well-known trick of turning one's coat inside 
out for luck in gaming, or to prevent being led astray by 
Robin Goodfellow or other errant sprites.^ Turning a 

1 Maspons y Labr6s, Lo Rondallayre, II, 104, no. This will be at once 
recognized as a variant of the folk-tale best known as Beauty and the Beast. 
There is also a forbidden chamber, or cupboard, as in Blue Beard. The 
elaborate directions for liberating the prince are properly directions for 
putting an effectual end to a monster with a " separable soul " like Koshchei. 
Here, then, as in The Bare-Stripping Hangman, we have a composite (see 
p. 208, above). 

2 Eva Wigstrom, Sagor ock Afventyr upptecknade i Skane, p. 10 (Nyare 
Bidrag, vol. V). 

3 Jakobsen, Far^ske Folkesagn og Mventyr, p. 399 (cf. pp. 401, 406, 407). 

* There is a good instance in Bishop Corbet's Iter Boreale (Dryden, Mis- 
cellany Poems, 1716, VI, 376; Corbet's Poems, 4th ed., edited by Gilchrist, 
1807, p. 191). Cf. Tyndale, Exposition of the First Epistle of St. John, 



21 6 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

somersault is a regular preliminary to transformation in 
Gypsy stories.^ In a legend of Derbyshire, a certain treasure 
chest in an underground passage '^ can only be fetched 
away by a white horse, who must have his feet shod the 
wrong way about, and who must approach the box with his 
tail foremost. 2 

In the remarkable Zulu tale of Umamha, a prince born in 
the form of a snake asks his young wife to anoint him and to 
pull off his snake-skin, when he appears in his true shape.^ 
The teller of the tale seems partly to have rationalized it, as 
if the prince wore his snake-skin as a disguise. At all events, 
there is very instructive confusion between a prince in 
snake-form and a prince concealing his true form by wearing 
a snake-skin, and the close psychological connection between 
the idea underlying the belief we are discussing and that 
which underlies the belief in werewolves and swan-maidens 
comes out very clearly. It does not appear that Umamba 
would ever have abandoned or been released from his 
snake-form if he had not found a woman willing to marry 

Prologue: " They wander as in a mist, or (as we say) led by Robin Good- 
fellow, that they cannot come to the right way, no though they turn their 
caps " {Works of Tyndale and Frith, ed. Russell, 1831, II, 388). 

^ See Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, pp. 16, 24, 40, 58, 59; M. Klimo, Contes 
et Legendes de Hongrie, 1898, p. 243; J. F. Campbell, The Celtic Dragon 
Myth, pp. 93 jff. 

2 S. O. Addy, Household Tales, London, 1895, p. 58. 

^ Callaway, Nursery Tales, Traditions and History of the Zulus, 1, 327. 
This is the tale mentioned, without a reference, by H. Husson, La Chatne 
Traditionelle, Paris, 1874, P- 130 (cited by Prato, Bulletin de Folklore, I, 334). 
Cf. the Roumanian-Gypsy tale of The Snake who became the King's Son-in- 
law, translated from Constantinescu, Probe de Limba si Literatura Tiganilor 
din Romania, Bucharest, 1878, No. 3, pp. 61 ff., by Groome, Gypsy Folk- 
Tales, pp. 21-24. See also Giambattista Basile's Lo Serpe, Pentamerone, ii, 
5, ed. Croce, I, 209 ff. (Liebrecht's translation, Der Pentamerone, 1846, I, 
191 ff.; J. E, Taylor's, The Pentamerone, 2d ed., 1850, pp. 153 ff.; Keightley, 
Tales and Popular Fictions, 1834, pp. 185 ff.; Olrik, Danske Studier, I, 
Iff.). 



DISENCHANTMENT BY DECAPITATION 21 7 

him. Thus Umamba connects itself with The Frog Prince ^ 
and similar instances of disenchantment. That the animal 
skin is conceived of as a covering to be stripped off comes out 
clearly in stories in which the bridegroom is enveloped in 
several such skins and the bride tells him to take them off.^ 

In an Armenian tale, Dragon-Child and Sun-Child,^ we 
have a clear case of an enchanted prince born in monstrous 
shape, half man and half dragon, who, released from the 
spell, issues from the dragon-skin, which bursts. While in 
dragon form the prince had been a destructive being, 
devouring a maiden every week (like St. George's dragon). 
His habitation is a dry well, and this associates him with the 
famiUar class of water-stopping monsters. 

It would be useless, as well as wearisome, to multiply 
examples further. Enough has been said to make it clear 
that both The Carl of Carlisle and The Turk and Gawain, 
whatever their dates may be, preserve, in the matter of 
disenchantment, a naive and ancient superstition, which 
may fairly claim universal currency. 

* See pp. 205, 206, above. 
2 Kohler, Kleinere Schriften, I, 318, note 2. 

' Seklemian, The Golden Maiden and other Folk Tales and Fairy Stories 
told in Armenia, Cleveland and New York, 1898, pp. 73, 74. 



IV. DUELLING BY ALTERNATION ^ 

Saxo's comment on the ancient method of alternate blows 
in single combat is worth quoting: '' Non enim antiquitus 
in edendis agonibus crebre ictuum uicissitudines petebantur, 
sed erat cum interuallo temporis eciam feriendi distincta 
successio, rarisque sed atrocibus plagis certamina gerebantur 
ut gloria pocius percussionum magnitudini, quam numero 
deferretur." ^ Elton, in his translation (1894), remarks that 
this style of fighting '* is still in use among native Austra- 
lians." 3 

In the holmgang of Gunnlaugr and Hrafn, the latter gives 
the first blow since he is the challenged party ,^ and this order 
is mentioned as regular in the Kormaks Saga.^ 

Wolfdietrich ^ visits the heathen with the express purpose 
of trying conclusions with him in the game of knife-throwing. 
To engage with all guests in this game is the custom of the 
castle. Strangers receive hospitality on no other terms. The 
heathen calls it his " right " {reht), and Wolfdietrich wishes 
to submit to ^' guest's law." Each of the two combatants, 
stripped to the shirt, stands on a stool, and has three 
knives and a little buckler a span wide. The host is con- 

^ See pp. 21-22. 

2 Historia Danica, bk. ii (ed. Stephanies, p. 30; ed. Miiller and Velschow, 
p. 87; ed. Holder, p. 56). See also the poem (Stephanius, p. 36; Miiller 
and Velschow, p. 103; Holder, p. 64). 

3 The First Nine Books of the Danish History, translated by Oliver Elton, 
p. 68, note 2. 

* Gunnlaugssaga Ormstungu, cap. 11, ed. Mogk, p. 23: " Hrafn atti fyrr 
at hoggva, er a hann var skorat." 

^ " Sa skal fyrr hoggva er skorat er a " (cap. 9). See Thorlacius, Ueber 
Zweykdmpfe im heidnischen Norden (Populdre Aufsdtze, translated by L. C. 
Sander, Copenhagen, 1812, pp. 317, 318, 335, 354, 355)- 

^ Wolfdietrich B, sts. 534 ff. {Deutsches Heldenbuch, III, 247 ff.); cf. D, 
vi, I ff. (IV, 73 ff.), and A (Dresden MS.), sts. 252 ff. (Ill, 154 ff.). 

218 



DUELLING BY ALTERNATION 219 

fident of victory. Five hundred heads of previous adven- 
turers crown the pinnacles of his tower; there is one 
pinnacle empty, and that is waiting for his present oppo- 
nent's head. 

" Sihstu dort an den zinnen fiinf hundert houbet stan, 
Diu ich mit minen henden alle verderbet ban ? 
Noch Stat ein zinne laere an minem tiirnlin: 
Da muoz din werdez houbet ze einem phande sin." 1 

The host claims the first three throws, for such is his custom. 
But he tells Wolfdietrich where he means to hit him: — first 
throw at his head, next at his feet, third at his heart. Wolf- 
dietrich dodges all three knives. He then informs the 
heathen that his first throw shall be at his right eye or his 
left foot, and the heathen is in doubt which to guard. Then 
Wolfdietrich appears to aim at his eye, but really aims at 
his foot, pinning him to the stool. For the second throw, 
he bids him guard the top of his head. The heathen holds 
up his buckler, but the knife cleaves both that and his 
skull. At the third throw, the heathen falls dead from the 
stool, the knife in his heart. 

An adventure of Lancelot's at the very outset of his 
career, is a close parallel to the experiences of Wolfdietrich 
with the heathen. It is recounted by Ulrich von Zatzik- 
hoven in his Lanzelet,^ which was composed at the end of the 
twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth.^ The 
host appears at the chamber door with two bucklers and two 
double-edged knives: " Take this shield in your hand and 
stand by this wall. I will take my place on the other side of 

^ Wolfdietrich B, st. 595. 

2 Vv. 708 ff., ed. Hahn, pp. 17 flf. Cf. Heinzel, Ueher die Ostgothische 
Heldensage, p. 79 (Vienna Academy, Sitzungsberichte, CIX); Hermannn 
Schneider, Die Gedichte und die Sage von Wolfdietrich, 1913, pp. 261-263, 
2875. 

3 See Romania, X, 465 ff.; XII, 459 ff. 



220 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

the room. You may have your choice — to begin the game 
or to let me throw first.'' Lancelot thinks it right that his 
host should begin. The knife goes through Lancelot's 
sleeve, wounding him slightly, and sticks into the wall. 
Lancelot springs across the chamber and stabs his opponent. 
This ends the game. " The host fell upon the floor and 
never spoke another word." ^ 

It is instructive to put by the side of these two adventures 
— Wolfdietrich's and Lancelot's — a Tinguian legend 
recently reported from the Philippines. The hero, arriving 
at the town of " the old man," challenges him to single com- 
bat. The old man sends for his head-axe and spear, but 
grants the adventurer the first throw: *^ Go on, and throw 
your spear, if you are brave." But the hero disdains to take 
advantage of his opponent. '* If I am the first to throw my 
spear," he retorts, " you will never have a chance to throw 
yours, for I will kill you at once. You [had] better throw 
yours first." Then the old man grows angry, and hurls his 
spear, but it glances off the hero's body. He tries to cut off 
the hero's head with his axe, but in vain, for he is invulner- 
able. The old man is a good sport: " Throw your spear at 
me; for if you can hit me, it is all right, for I have killed 
many people." Then the hero pierces the old man with his 
spear and cuts off his head.^ 

The duel between Wrennok and Gandeleyn is in the ballad 
of Robyn and Gandeleyn, preserved in a manuscript of about 
1450.3 "Who shall have the first shot?" asked Gandeleyn. 
" I," answered Wrennok. But he missed Gandeleyn, whose 
arrow then " clef his herte on too." For the duel with darts 

^ Vv. 1113-1183, pp. 27-28. 

2 Cole, Traditions of the Tinguian, pp. 76-77 (Field Museum of Natural 
History, Anthropological Series, XIV); cf. Cole, pp. 103-104, 125-126, for 
similar duels. 

3 Child, Ballads, No. 115, III, 12-14 (from Sloane MS. 2593, fol. 14&). 



DUELLING BY ALTERNATION 221 

in the Madagascar tale, see Charles Renel, Contes de Mada- 
gascar, pp. 116-117. 

The game of exchanging buffets is admirably illustrated 
by a passage in the Middle English romance of Richard 
Coer de Lion} The incident is thus summarized by Child: 
— " Richard is betrayed to the king of Almayne by a min- 
strel to whom he had given a cold reception. The king's 
son, held the strongest man of the land, visits the prisoner, 
and proposes to him an exchange of this sort. The prince 
gives Richard a clout which makes fire spring from his eyes, 
and goes off laughing, ordering Richard to be well fed, so 
that he may have no excuse for returning a feeble blow when 
he takes his turn. The next day, when the prince comes for 
his payment, Richard, who has waxed his hand by way of 
preparation, delivers a blow which breaks the young cham- 
pion's cheekbone and fells him dead." 2 A similar game is 
called " plucke-buffet " in A Gest of Rohyn Hode (sts. 424- 
426). The king and Robm "shoot at pluck buffet" as 
they ride together, the one who wins a shot having the 
right to give the other a blow. Robin is of course the 

better archer. 

And many a buffet our kynge wan 

Of Robyn Hode that day, 
And nothynge spared good Robyn 

Our kynge in his pay.^ 

In The Turk and Gawain, a challenge to an exchange of 
buffets occupies the same place that the challenge to the 
beheading game holds in Gawain and the Green Knight} 

1 Vv. 746-798 (Weber, Metrical Romances, II, 32-34); vv. 738-798 (ed. 
Brunner, pp. 1 18-120, Wiener Beitrdge zur englischen Philologie, XLII). 

2 Ballads, III, 55. 

3 Child, III, 77. 

4 Madden, Syr Gawayne, pp. 243-255; Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript y 
ed. by Hales and Fumivall, I, 88-102. 



222 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

For the very curious scene in Chapman's Alphonsus Em- 
peror of Germany, see the Pearson edition of the Comedies 
and Tragedies, 1873, HI? 229-230. 

The contest with the venomous apple in the heroic saga 
of Finn proceeds in accordance with the alternate method. 
In the Irish Finn and Lorcan, Finn visits the land of the 
King of the Dark Island in quest of the Sword of Light. 
Lorcan is his helpful companion, and undertakes to provide 
the usual comforts, — shelter, bed, food, etc. For food he 
applies to the king's butcher, who proposes a game {cleas). 
He says he has a poison-apple and claims the first cast with 
it; then Lorcan may have the second shot. Lorcan bids 
him make haste. The butcher hits Lorcan in the forehead 
and such is the force of the blow that the apple is driven out 
to daylight at the back of his head. Lorcan pulls out the 
apple with his finger and heals the wound with his thumb. 
Then he throws the apple in his turn, and it goes clean 
through the butcher's head, pierces an iron door, and sinks 
seven fathoms deep in the earth. This finishes the butcher 
and Lorcan helps himself to provisions.^ In another version 
the game is played with the king's baker instead of the 
butcher.2 

In a Highland version of the favorite Irish saga known as 
The Fairy Palace of the Quicken Trees? a gigantic cave- 
dweller asks the King of Eirin, who has entered his retreat 
in pursuit of a hare, " Whether do you hke best to play at 
the venomous apple or at the hot gridiron ? " ^ The king 
chooses the apple. And " every time he threw the venomous 
apple across," says the king in reporting the incident, '' he 

1 Finn agus Lorcan, Imtheachta an Oireachtais, II, i, 7 flF. (Dublin, 1903). 

2 Imtheachta an Oireachtais, III, ii, 41 fif. (1901). 

3 Nineteen versions are enumerated in [Harvard] Studies and Notes, VIII, 
209-210 (one in a MS. of 1600, another in a MS. of 1603). 

* Compare the brazier in The Turk and Gawain, w. 199-223. 



DUELLING BY ALTERNATION 223 

killed one of [my] gentlemen; and when I threw it back he 
intercepted it with the point of a penknife." ^ There is a 
contest with a "golden apple" in one of J. F. Campbell's 
versions of the same saga, and likewise a huge cauldron (as 
in The Turk and Gawain).^ The contest with the apple 
becomes, in The Turk and Gawain a game of hand-tennis 
(jeu de paume or "palm-play") between the Turk and the 
King of Man's Giants. The " tennis ball " was of brass: no 
knight in Arthur's hall was strong enough to " give it a 
lout," no man in all England strong enough to " carry it." ^ 

^ Mac Innes, Folk and Hero Tales, p. 87. 

2 Fionn's Enchantment, Revue Celtique, I, 196 ff. 

3 Vv. 187-189, 140-142. 



V. THE BOOK OF CARADOC 

The relation of the Challenge to the remainder of the Livre 
de Caradoc deserves consideration. In that poem it occurs 
as one of a little cycle of adventures told of Caradoc. We 
have studied it, however, by itself, without reference to the 
rest of the Livre} There is ample justification for such 
procedure. The Challenge in Celtic belongs properly to 
CuchuHnn and not to Caradoc, and it has an existence in 
French quite independent of the latter hero. It forms, then, 
no essential part of Caradoc's legend. 

Further, the only document (the Liwe) which actually 
attaches the Challenge to Caradoc, is so closely related 
to Gawain and the Green Knight as to force the inference of 
a common original (R) from which these two poems have 
derived the incident in question. Now the EngHsh poem 
has nothing but the Challenge in common with the Livre de 
Caradoc. The natural conclusion is that R was an episodical 
French romance of Gawain containing simply this incident 
and nothing more.^ This becomes a certainty when we 
compare the Challenge in La Mule sanz Frain with the other 
versions; for we find ourselves forced to infer that R was 
itself derived from an earlier French poem (0), which was 
the common source of both R and the Challenge in La Mule. 
As it is extremely improbable that R contained any of the 
adventures that stand in the Livre de Caradoc except the 
Challenge, so is it {a fortiori) almost inconceivable that O 
contained any of them except that story. In brief, the shape 
in which the Challenge occurs in all the extant versions is 
simply and easily explained by a construction which makes 
that story pass into French from Irish, by whatever path, 
but once,^ and that once must have been before the incident 
1 Pp. 26 ff. 2 p, 38^ 3 p, 47. 



THE BOOK OF CARADOC 22? 

was attached to the other adventures with which it is now 
associated in the Livre de Caradoc. If, on the other hand, 
we maintain (with Gaston Paris) ^ that the Challenge had 
attached itself to Caradoc on Celtic soil (whether in Wales 
or in Brittany), we shall be obliged to assume a double 
source for the French Livre in this particular adventure, — 
holding that some French poet who found the incident in his 
Celtic source, revised it on the basis of a French poem (R) 
which was itself derived from Celtic. Otherwise, the pecu- 
liar resemblances between the Livre de Caradoc (as we have 
it) and Gawain and the Green Knight cannot be explained. 
The hypothesis is excessively complicated and altogether 
improbable, especially since there is absolutely no necessity 
for resorting to it to explain the phenomena. 

A scrutiny of the role of the Challenge in the Livre de 
Caradoc confirms our opinion that this is no proper part of 
the Caradoc cycle but was inserted from some French poem 
that was unrelated to him. The plot of the Livre is as 
follows : — 

Isaune,2 Arthur's niece, marries Caradoc, King of Nantes in Brit- 
tany. Her lover, the magician Eliavres, deprives Caradoc of his wife 
for the first three nights after the wedding, but furnishes magic sub- 
stitutes so that the outrage is not discovered. Thus our hero, Caradoc 
the younger, is really the son of EHavres, not of his putative father. 
At the proper age he crosses the Channel and visits the court of his 
great-uncle. King Arthur, who gives him the accolade at a Pentecostal 
feast. On this occasion an unknown knight appears and challenges 
the Round Table to the game of decapitation. Caradoc accepts, and 
the events follow that we have already studied. When the stranger 
has tested Caradoc's valor sufficiently, he spares his Hfe, and, taking 
him aside, reveals himself to him as his father, the magician; he even 
explains the details of the trick of substitution that he had played on 
the elder Caradoc years before. The young man, not pleased, calls 
Eliavres a Har, but he feels that he has spoken the truth. The en- 
chanter rides off at the top of his speed. The court breaks up, and 

1 Romania, XXVIII, 229. 2 Qr I save. 



226 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Caradoc hastens home to Brittany and repeats to his supposed father 
everything that Eliavres has said. Isaune does not attempt to deny 
her guilt, and her husband shuts her up in a tower of stone. 

Caradoc the younger returns to King Arthur, meaning to devote 
himself to arms, as befits a chevalier. After reaching England, and 
while on his way to Carlion, he falls in with a knight named Aalardin 
du Lac who is carrying off Guimer, the sister of Cador of Cornwall. 
Caradoc protests but is bluntly advised to " mind his own business." 
In the fight that ensues, Aalardin is worsted and yields himself prisoner 
to the lady, by Caradoc's instructions. All three now hunt up Cador, 
who is lying on the ground almost lifeless — the result of a recent 
combat with Aalardin, for the abduction had taken place while Cador 
and Guimer were riding to court. 

Aalardin conducts them all to his pavilion, which is pitched in a 
fair meadow. Here they see many wonderful things, the work of 
enchantment, and make the acquaintance of Aalardin's sister, who 
cures Cador without delay. [It is certain that he and his sister are 
supernatural beings.] The three knights swear everlasting brother- 
hood and accompany the two ladies to Carlion. By this time Caradoc 
and Guimer, Cador's sister, are in love with each other. After an 
account of the festivities at court, including an insufferably tedious 
tournament,^ the story passes over to Brittany. 

Isaune, we remember, has been shut up in a tower of stone. But 
her lover Eliavres, being a magician, has no difficulty in visiting her 
continually, and they lead a merry life. By his magic he makes 
musicians appear, who play for them, and women who dance and 
tumble to amuse them. The neighbors are amazed at the sounds of 
revelry. Caradoc the elder sets a watch, but the magician always 
eludes his vigilance. At length a summons is sent to young Caradoc, 
who is still at Arthur's court. He returns to Nantes, takes up the 
affair, and succeeds in surprising Isaune and Eliavres together. The 
enchanter is seized, and the injured husband subjects him to a bar- 
barous punishment, which is meant, however to be condign, for it 
repeats with savage variations the tricks that Eliavres played upon 
him at the outset. 

Isaune appeals to her lover for vengeance on their son. He pro- 
duces by his arts a serpent horrible and black, puts it in her aumaire, 
and bids her send Caradoc thither, when next she sees him, on the 
pretext of fetching her mirror. She obeys, and when Caradoc puts 
in his hand, the serpent fixes on his arm and begins to suck his blood. 

^ The tournament is lacking in some manuscripts and is manifestly not 
by the same author as most of the Liwe. 



THE BOOK OF CARADOC 227 

He has not two years to live. Half-mad with his sufferings, Caradoc 
wanders about in the woods, often confessing himself at some hermi- 
tage, and bitterly repentant for his treatment of his father and 
mother. He is found by his friend Cador, the brother of his amie, 
after a long search. Cador wishes to cut away the reptile, but Caradoc 
assures him that if it were injured, he should die in a moment. 

So Cador visits Isaune in her tower and reproaches her for what she 
has done to Caradoc. He finds her remorseful, and she ascertains 
from Ehavres the sole means of removing the serpent. This involves 
an act of devotion on the part of Guimer, Caradoc's amie, but she 
does not hesitate. The serpent is killed and Caradoc saved, but 
Guimer loses the nipple of her right breast. Caradoc's supposed 
father, the king of Nantes, dies soon after, and he succeeds to the 
throne, having taken Guimer to wife. 

One day Caradoc falls in with his friend Aalardin in the forest, 
follows him to his [other-world] mansion, and receives from him the 
boss of a magic golden shield, with instructions as to its eflScacy. 
This he appKes to his wife's breast, 

Et li ors s'i joint maintenant 
Et fu tout d'autretel samblant 
Come I'autre mamele estoit. 

Then the Livre closes with the famous adventure of the horn from 
which no husband of an unfaithful woman can drink without spiUing 
the wine. Caradoc does not spill a drop, and compliments Guimer 
with charming simplicity and grace: " Lady, I give you my thanks! 
No wife ever did her husband greater honor at court." 

All this makes a straightforward and consistent narrative 
with the exception of the Challenge. This disorders the plot. 
The intrigue between Eliavres and Caradoc's mother is a 
secret, and it is for the enchanter's interest to keep it quiet. 
Yet by his conduct in connection with the Challenge he 
reveals everything and causes Isaune to be imprisoned, thus 
wantonly getting himself and her into difficulties. Omit the 
Challenge and all is clear and logical with only the slightest 
possible bit of adjustment. The revelation of the intrigue 
and the imprisonment of Isaune will result, not from the 
absurd acts of her lover, but from young Caradoc's discover- 



228 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

ing the pair together. Then will follow the vengeance of the 
guilty couple, Caradoc's terrible affliction, his relief by the 
devotion of Guimer, and their happy marriage. The tale 
might end with the death of the king of Nantes, the corona- 
tion of Caradoc and Guimer, and the cure by the magic 
shield. The episode of the wondrous horn, makes, however, 
a good epilogue. 

Nobody seems to have noticed, or at all events to have 
thought it worth while to promulgate, the obvious fact that 
the story of Caradoc and the Serpent is an adaptation of the 
widespread folk-tale known as The Faithless Mother (or 
Sister)} About a hundred versions are in print.^ They fall 
into several groups and exhibit considerable variety, but 
the type is not to be mistaken. In one group the hero is the 
son of a princess who has been shut up in a tower to seclude 
her from wooers (Danae type) but has conceived in a mira- 
culous manner (from a grain, a leaf, a flower, a glance of the 
eye). She has been driven from home and is alone in the 
wilderness with her boy. He discovers the habitation of 
certain uncanny creatures (dragons, cyclopes, ogres, blacks), 
kills them all but one, and shuts that one up, half dead. The 
mother releases the captive and gives him her love. They 
fear discovery and plot the hero's destruction. It is usually 
the woman who makes the suggestion but the paramour 
who tells her what to do. She feigns sickness and sends her 
son on dangerous errands to fetch something that will cure 
her. He always succeeds in these quests by the aid of a 
supernatural being who is commonly feminine {fee, lamia, 
etc.). Sometimes this person is an enchanted princess whom 
he has freed. The plots thus failing, the mother binds him 

1 P. 27. 

2 Bolte and Polivka, Anmerkimgen zu den Kinder- u. Uausmdrchen der 
Briider Grimm, I, 551 ff. (No. 60). 



THE BOOK OF CARADOC 229 

by a trick, and the lover kills him, cuts him into bits, and 
puts the fragments on the back of the hero's magic horse. 
The horse carries the mangled body to the abode of the 
supernatural helper, who restores the hero to life. Some- 
times he marries her. 

In another group there is usually little or no trace of 
mysterious parentage. The hero is sent on errands as before. 
On one of these quests he rescues a princess who has been 
carried off by giants. Instead of being killed, his eyes are 
put out and he is turned adrift in the woods. He is guided 
to the princess by helpful animals or otherwise. She marries 
him and restores his sight, and he succeeds to the kingdom. 

In an erratic story from Tripoli, which is related to this 
cycle but refuses to conform, there is a most striking parallel 
to the method adopted by Eliavres in his revenge on Cara- 
doc. A woman has married a person who has the power to 
turn himself into a snake, a dog, or a monster. Her brother 
Uves with them,and she wishes to get rid of him (for no 
assigned reason) and urges her husband to kill him. " Very 
well, I will turn into a snake and hide in the date-cask, and 
when he sticks in his hand, I '11 bite him." The plot fails, 
for reasons that need not here be particularized. ^ 

The saga of Caradoc and the Serpent as told in the Livre 
follows the type as closely as could be expected in a case of 
adaptation to chivalric romance. The essential features are 
well preserved — amorous intrigue with an uncanny being, 
hatred of the mother for her son, her appeal to her paramour 
to kill him and his suggestion of a method, errand on which 
the son is sent by his mother with intent to destroy, death 
or dreadful affliction of the son, his resuscitation or cure by 
a woman (sometimes his amie). The peculiarity of the 
Caradoc version consists in the fact that the mother's para- 

1 Stumme, Marchen und Gedichte aus der Stadt Tripolisy 1898, pp. 104 ff. 



230 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

mour is the father of the hero, and this is due, as we have 
seen, to the influence of what may be called the Nectanabus 
theme.^ In so styling it, however, I do not mean to suggest 
any borrowing from the Alexander legend. If we had a 
good old Welsh account of Caradoc, we might or might not 
discover that he was the son of a Celtic divinity, but that 
would have no bearing on the episode of the Challenge in 
the Livre or elsewhere. 

This is not the place to examine the Celtic antecedents of 
the Livre de Caradoc in those adventures which properly 
belong to Caradoc's cycle (the serpent story and the test 
with the magic horn). The subject has been restudied, on 
the basis of the interesting discoveries of Miss Harper,^ by 
Gaston Paris and F. Lot.^ I will merely suggest that the 
removal of the Challenge from the Caradoc cycle in no way 
affects the main results at which those distinguished scholars 
have arrived. 

1 See Weinreich, Der Trug des Nektanebos, Berlin, 191 1. Henderson's 
conjecture that in an older version of the Fled Bricrend than any that we 
have, Cuchulinn's father Sualtam was the challenger in the beheading game, 
is improbable in itself, and cannot appeal to the Caradoc for support (see 
Henderson's Fled Bricrend, pp. xlv, and note, 199). 

2 Modern Language Notes, November, 1898, XIII, 209 flf. 

3 Romania, XXVIII, 214 ff., 568 £F. Cf. Rh>^s, Celtic Folklore, II, 689- 
690. 



VI. LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 

In La Mule sanz Frain, as in Le Livre de Caradoc, the episode 
of the Challenge is an intrusion, — that is, in both cases it 
has been put into a plot to which it did not originally belong. 
Accordingly, in our investigation in Part One we have not 
found it necessary to analyze the plot of La Mule, but have 
treated the Challenge as a story by itself. ^ Yet perhaps the 
subject ought not to be dismissed without further scrutiny, 
and the plot of La Mule offers many interesting features 
which will repay the trouble of examination. 

One has but to read Paien's poem attentively to perceive 
that it bears some relation to certain well-ascertained types 
of folk-tales, — in particular, to The Fairy Mistress or The 
Visit to the Other World (so famiHar in Irish literature and 
legend) and to The Enchanted Princess or The Release of a 
Captive Maiden. Before attempting to analyze the romance, 
we must define these types with care. 

I. The Fairy Mistress. — An immortal woman, a fee, 
resident in the land of joy and perpetual youth (which is 
conceived as an island or an underground realm or as some- 
how separated from this world by a river or the sea), is 
enamored of a mortal here and summons him to her pres- 
ence.2 The messenger may be an attendant nymph ^ or an 
animal. In the latter case, the animal is not an ordinary 

1 Pp. 42 ff. 

2 On this type see A. C. L. Brown, [Harvard] Studies and Notes, 1903, 
VIII, 19 G., where references to previous treatment may be found. The 
type may be said to have two antitypes: (i) stories in which a god wooes a 
mortal woman, and (2) those in which a fee or other supernatural woman 
(swan-maiden, mermaid) becomes for a time an inhabitant of this earth as 
the wife or mistress of a mortal hero. For the latter see Cross, Modern 
Philology, XII, 585 ff. (on Lanval and Graelent); for the former see Cross, 
Revue Celtique, XXXI, 413 ff. (on Yonec). 

3 As in Lanval and the Serglige Conchulaind. 

331 



232 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

beast but a magical creature in the service of the /ee, and 
may even be a transformed fairy maiden. Thus, in a famil- 
iar variety of the type, the hero is hunting and pursues a 
white doe or a great boar, which conducts him to the pres- 
ence of his expectant mistress.^ Sometimes the fee goes in 
person to summon her favorite to the other world,^ or the 
animal is the fee herself in a temporary disguise. It may 
suffice for the hero to go to the fee's land; or he may be 
forced to prove his worthiness by performing tasks or over- 
coming obstacles before he wins her. These terms may 
appear to be quite wantonly imposed by the fee herself, but 
they are really conditions to which she is bound by the very 
quaUty of her divine nature.^ The hero may remain with 
the fee forever, but sometimes he returns to this world, 
homesick for the kindly race of men.^ 

11. The Gianfs Daughter. — A hero makes his way into 
the Other World and desires to marry the daughter of its 
ruler. The god is angry or reluctant, and wishes to destroy 
or eject the intruder. At best, he is under the necessity of 
testing the suitor's worthiness to become an immortal. In 
any case, he either tries to kill the aspirant (sometimes in 
single combat, often by trickery) or sets him dangerous or 
apparently impossible tasks. In these the hero is frequently 

1 As in Guingamor and the story of the Biche Blanche. 

2 As in the story of Connla Ruad. 

' Just as sometimes a liaison between mortal and inmiortal must be 
broken off when it becomes known — not because the parties wish to sepa- 
rate, but because they cannot help themselves (cf. American Journal of 
Philology, VII, 191, note). 

* So swan-maidens and other supernatural brides are almost certain to 
leave their mortal husbands and return to their mysterious realm. On 
" the fairy mistress in the world of mortals " see Cross, Modern Philology, 
XII, 594 ff., in a fundamentally important paper on the Celtic Elements 
in the Lays of Lanval and Graelent. Some of the tests applied to mortal 
lovers by fairy mistresses are certainly borrowed from other types of 
mdrchen. 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 233 

helped by the daughter or by animals. In the end, the 
bride is won, for the god is either baffled and subdued or else 
he is satisfied to accept the hero as son-in-law.^ In a variety 
of this type, the hero runs away with the daughter and is 
pursued but makes good his escape, frequently by the aid of 
magic obstacles. 

Many tales of this type are frankly mythological. In 
many, however, the Other World is replaced (or repre- 
sented) by the abode of a giant (ogre, ghoul, rakshasa), who 
is savage and malignant by nature but has a beautiful wife 
or daughter.2 There are tasks, as before, and helpful 
animals; or the lady assists the quester, since she has no 
fondness for her monstrous husband (or father) — none, at 
all events, that does not quickly evaporate under the charm 
of the hero's presence. When the giant has been killed and 
the lady won, the hero may continue to inhabit the giant's 
castle, or he may return to his native country, enriched with 
the spoils of victory. The original object of his quest may 
not have been to get a wife, but to steal some precious object 
like the Golden Fleece. In this case the lady is an addi- 
tional prize which crowns the adventurer's felicity. 

Types I and II are superficially alike, since both involve 
the winning of a wife of the Other World; but the distinc- 
tion between them is elementary and abysmal. In the first 
type the lady is a powerful goddess, who acts of her own 
volition and controls the destinies of her chosen hero. In 
the second, the government of the Other World is masculine, 
and the lady is subject to the will of her father (or husband). 
At best, he is a fierce and despotic divinity (or tyrant king) 
against whom her only weapon is craft. Often he is a cruel 

1 See Lowie, The Test Theme, Journal of American Folk-Lore, XXI, 134 £f. 

2 In rude forms of this variety, the lady may be the giant's wife or 
mistress. Finer feeling makes her a captive maiden whom he wishes to 
marry but who has resisted his importimities. 



234 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

giant or a man-eating demon. In some varieties, indeed, 
the lady languishes in captivity, from which she can be 
freed by the hero only. Neither of these types can by any 
conceivable chance have developed out of the other. In 
their controlling ideas they differ utterly and ah initio. Nor 
is it useful or even reasonable to try to distinguish their 
comparative '' primitiveness." Both were already ancient 
and widespread and solidly established long before the 
earliest date that concerns us here. 

Yet, despite their essential difference, there are certain 
points in the two types that are or may become coincident. 
In both, for example, the hero must go to the Other World 
— and since the journey seems likely in any case to be 
difficult and dangerous in itself, there is ample opportunity 
for any tale-teller to attach (at will or by confusion) adven- 
tures en route to a story belonging to either type. So too of 
perils, tasks, and proofs undergone by the hero after he has 
crossed the Great Divide. The animus behind the tests or 
tasks will, of course, be different, but the res gestae may be 
identical. Finally, there is a fine chance for confusion in the 
helpful or guiding animal. Such beasts are kittle cattle even 
for the professed anthropologist: they are mere lutins 
espiegles to any student of literature who undertakes to 
annex the vast domain of folk-lore in a fortnight. 

Originally and properly the helpful animal is quite un- 
connected with either of the typical marchen that now 
occupy us. He may be literally of the hero's kin, — his 
brother, even his twin brother (as in the " congenital " 
examples). He may be constructively or mystically of his 
kin, — his totem, what you will. He may be merely a 
grateful being, eager to repay a kindness casually done. He 
may be all three of these in one. But, whatever his motive 
is and however he has been acquired by the hero, he is in his 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 235 

functions simply a friend in need, and as such, of course, he 
is likely to appear on any occasion when the hero wants 
assistance. Wherever there is trouble or difl&culty or danger, 
there is the helpful animal. Thus his presence in any parti- 
cular tale by no means determines the type to which that 
tale is referable, or the central idea that governed its con- 
ception. 

Helpful animals, then, as I have just said, may easily work 
confusion between our two types of folk-tale. For one of 
the chief services which they afford is to guide or convey the 
hero, and in this capacity they are just as usable in one type 
as in the other. Hence we cannot always be certain whether 
a given beast in a given story is the fee^s summoner (type I) 
or whether he is (type II) the hero's guide, philosopher, and 
friend, helping him to the Other World for the nonce on a 
voluntary errand. 

This is a long excursus de partibus animalium, but I think 
it not altogether otiose. There is some danger that we may 
allow the Fairy Mistress to slip into the throne recently left 
vacant by the tiresome Sun God of the comparative mytho- 
logists; and we must not let her achieve this bad eminence 
by the aid of helpful animals. In short, the presence of such 
a beast in any folk-tale or romantic poem does not even 
create a presumption that the heroine is a, fee, unless we can 
make sure that the creature acts as her messenger or agent. ^ 
This once determined, we may safely entrust ourselves to 
the animal's guidance. 

Three things, then, may be more or less alike in the inci- 
dents of our first and our second type — the difficulty of 
reaching the Other World, the tasks and dangers that 
confront the hero when he gets there, and the role of the 

^ On helpful animals see Hartland, Legend of Perseus, III, 191-197 (a 
most useful table). 



236 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

helpful animals. Hence it is not surprising that the two 
types are often confused or even amalgamated in popular 
fiction. From their amalgamation arises a third type of 
folk-tale, and we may call it The Enchanted Princess. 

The process of its formation is easy to follow. In type II 
{The Gianfs Daughter), as we have already seen, there is a 
tendency to substitute for the wife or mistress or daughter 
of the giant, a mortal maiden whom the monster holds 
captive. Such a change is due in part to refinement of feel- 
ing. In part, however it comes from religious scruple. For 
the hero to marry a creature, however beautiful and virtuous, 
who was beyond the pale of humanity, was felt to be equiv- 
alent to a demonic alHance.^ In the first type {The Fairy 
Mistress) the necessity for some modification of the heroine's 
nature was still more imperative. Whatever might be 
thought of a giant's daughter, there could be no doubt that 
the fees who enticed men to their unearthly realm were 
devils, union with whom was mortal sin.^ Enchantment 
afforded an easy way out of the difficulty, and fees became 
enchanted mortals, whom it was praiseworthy to set free 
and lawful to wed. This substitution made it easy for the 
types to coalesce, especially since, in the second type, the 
giant or ogre was often regarded as a magician who detained 
his fair captive as much by spells as by physical force. When 
the fee of the first t3^e had become an enchanted princess, 
other changes in her story were inevitable; and these were 
effected by borrowing features from the second type, or by 
interpreting features already present in the first type in the 
fight of similar traits belonging to the other. Thus was de- 
veloped Type III, which we will now examine and describe. 

^ The change from demon's daughter to enchanted princess may be 
observed in the Panqatrantra itself (cf. Brockhaus, I, no- 113, with II, 175). 
2 The case of the Ritter von Staufenberg is a superb example. 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 237 

III. The Enchanted Princess. — The land where the fee 
lives has ceased to be the Other World. It is simply the 
hereditary possession of a fair mortal. Wicked spells have 
made it invisible (except at particular times and under 
special circumstances) or inaccessible (except to the fortu- 
nate hero who can baffle the magic). The same enchant- 
ment has made the lady's castle hard to enter and has filled 
it with hideous defenders, — lions and dragons and ser- 
pents. The lady herself is immured in the highest tower or 
the innermost room, and may be buried in magic sleep or 
transformed into some horrible monster. 

The enchanter who has wrought all this evil may or may 
not be present in person. If present, he sometimes acts 
simply as one more opponent whom the hero must over- 
come; but sometimes he is the suitor of the lady, whom he 
will set free if she will be his wife.^ The tests or tasks which 
the ruler of the Other World imposes upon the aspirant for 
his daughter's hand in t)^e II, and which in type I the fee 
may require as proofs of her chosen lover's worthiness, 
become in t3^e III magic obstacles contrived by the en- 
chanter. The helpful animal of type II may be regarded in 
type III as owing his beast's form to the malice of the 
magician. In that case, he is commonly a brother or other 
relative of the princess, and the conditions of the spell allow 
him to roam about in search of a champion who will attempt 
to undo the mischief. Thus he inherits the office of the 
guiding beast of type I. And as the hart or boar or hiche 
blanche of type I may be an attendant nymph (or even the 
fee herself) in a temporary disguise, so the enchanted animal 
of type III resumes his human shape when the spells are 

^ In this latter case, the story melts so completely into one variety of the 
type II (that in which a captive woman has been substituted for the wife 
or daughter of the giant) that it is hard to tell from which side to begin its 
analysis. 



238 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

broken.^ The denouement of the story involves the disen- 
chantment both of the lady and her realm, and the accept- 
ance of the hero as the husband of the one and the king or 
feudatory of the other. 

Before we leave this third type, a word must be said of the 
condition to which the land or the city of the enchanted 
princess has been reduced by the spells of her persecutor. 
Very often it lies desolate; no inhabitants are visible; the 
houses stand empty and are falling into ruin. On the dis- 
solution of the spell, however, everything returns to its 
normal state. The streets are filled with citizens, the 
palaces once more resound with the voice of feasting. In 
this trait of the gaste citee or the " waste land," so familiar 
in Arthurian romance, it is not difficult to recognize a sur- 
vival of one of the best known laws of the Other World; for 
the feature exists quite independently of the type of mdrchen 
which we are discussing, and is easily intelHgible whenever 
we encounter it. Knights errant are always entering vacant 
palaces and finding a feast spread for them. They continu- 
ally see splendid castles where nothing of the kind was 
known before, enter, and after romantic adventures wake 
up to find themselves in the open field or under a tree in the 
forest.2 This means simply that the fees or spirits of the 
supernatural realm are not ordinarily visible to mortals, but 
that at times they become so.^ The general tendency to 
convert all these beings into devils or magicians explains the 
shape in which we frequently encounter such stories in 
mediaeval and later literature. Philosophy and Christianity 

^ For examples of the disenchantment of the helpful animal, see p. 200. 

2 In this form of story we have in part a survival of the belief in lustful 
demons like Lilith, or the Lamia in Philostratus. Their prestigious enchant- 
ments are partly for the satisfaction of their desires, and the hero is dis- 
carded when the fee (enchantress) is weary of him. 

' Cf. Newell, Journal of American Folk-Lore, XIII, 232. 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 239 

account for the phenomena as diabolical illusions. The title 
of John Wier's book is the solution of the whole matter: 
De Praestigiis Daemonum. May not Satan himself appear 
as an angel of Hght ? ^ 

This substitution of enchantment is due to rationalizing. 
It brings the supernatural personages down to the level of 
humanity and makes them thoroughly reasonable and 
natural creatures. For the enchanter is a primeval figure 
and magic is an art that has been practised from the earUest 
known times down to the present day. A magician is 
nothing but a man who commands powers and forces in- 
accessible to the general run of his fellow-creatures. He was 
hardly stranger to the minds of our remoter ancestors than 
the expert electrician or chemist is to us. The process, then, 
is of the same kind as that by which gods became heroes, or 
by which animal-spouses became, not real animals (for that 
was abhorrent to reason and sensibility), but men trans- 
formed for the time into brute shape and transformable into 
mortal guise if the proper means could be discovered. As 
time goes on, however, the very idea of enchantment may 
itself come to seem unreasonable, and therefore an attempt 
is sometimes made by the story-teller to represent the 
strange events as due to natural causes or to tell them as 
facts, with no mention of the superhuman. This kind of 
rationalizing is extremely common in Arthurian romance, 
and it frequently results in contradiction or sheer incom- 
prehensibility. A magician is permitted by the laws of his 
art to make the conditions of disenchantment as bizarre as 

^ The degradation to which the poetical and innocent fancy of a wife 
from the Other World may submit is well illustrated in the account of an 
unfortuate Italian priest, manifestly insane, in the Strix of the younger 
Pico della Mirandola. Witch trials are crowded with similar horrors. Here 
again we note the survival of the very ancient belief in lustful demons. 



1 



240 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

he likes. The more nearly they approach the unachievable, 
the better for the wizard, who of course desires his regime 
to be permanent. And the counter-magic or unspelling 
devices that bafSe the villain of the piece may be just as 
preposterous (if there is truth in magic anyhow) as the 
original spells, and still be quite reasonable. Thus in 
Walewein a king's son is changed into a fox by his step- 
mother. He must retain this shape until he shall be in the 
company of King Wonder, King Wonder's son, the princess 
Assentijn, and Walewein, all at the same moment — and 
this, the queen thinks, will never come to pass. Yet it does, 
and the fox returns to his human form; for no enchantment 
can be quite indissoluble — there must always be a way out. 
Here there is also a counter-spell, imposed upon the wicked 
stepmother by the prince's aunt: she must become a toad 
and squat under the doorsill until he is released from the 
charm. 1 Such stories are perfectly consistent and easy to 
understand so long as they keep the magical machinery; but 
if the adventures alone are kept by the narrator, and the 
magic causes are ignored or rationalized, the whole thing 
becomes a farrago of inconsequent absurdities. ^ The in- 
coherence or lack of adequate motive which critics censure 
in the Arthurian romances, is not seldom due to the fact that 
the rationalizing process has been applied (perhaps only 
partially, when the confusion is the greater) to stories which 
in their original form were coherent if the data as to en- 
chantment and the like (which no ancient would have 
dreamed of disputing) were once admitted as true.^ 

1 Walewein, vv. 5696 ff., 5736 ff., 10942 iff. (ed. Jonckbloet, I, 189 ff., 
360-361). 

2 Cf. the Challenge in Perlesvaus (pp. 52 ff,, above). 

' I do not mean to extend this principle to every late and merely imita- 
tive piece; for some of these are mechanical works of fiction, cobbled together 
out of old materials and donnees with no regard to sense or structure. 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 24 1 

A good example of progressive rationalization may be seen 
by comparing Wauchier's continuation of Perceval li Gallois 
with the Modena (or Didot) Perceval in the adventure of 
the Perilous Ford. Here we have a contamination of two 
motifs — the Fairy Mistress and the Disenchantment. The 
former is doubtless the original and proper motif in this 
episode, but disenchantment is expressly mentioned in the 
Modena version as the result of the hero's feat, and the 
effects of the unspelling are described. In Wauchier, on 
the other hand, the adventure is rationaUzed and all traces 
of the supernatural have vanished. ^ 

The fact that we can detect so much rationahzing in the 
French Arthurian material, and that too in very early texts, 
— in Chretien, for example, — shows that these texts, even 
if they do come early in extant French literature, come late 
in the development of the particular story which each tells. 
They stand, in a sense, at the end rather than at the begin- 
ning of a long course of development. And even the Celtic 
materials which the French authors followed had already 
been more or less subjected to the same process before they 
came into French hands. Middle Irish documents often 
exhibit similar misapprehensions or perversions.^ From 
whatever quarter the Celtic material reached French writers, 
much of it had undergone extensive modification before they 
received it. 

Fortunately we are able to bring to bear upon such 
problems the testimony of a huge mass of folk-tales, which 
the devotion of collectors for the past hundred years has 
accumulated from every nation under heaven. These are 

^ Modena Perceval, in Miss Weston's Legend of Sir Perceval, II, 50-55; 
Perceval li Gallois, vv. 24182 £f. (Potvin, IV, 134 ff.). See Miss Weston's 
remarks. Legend of Sir Perceval, II, 204 ff. 

2 An example that is very striking on account of its great age may be 
seen in the story quoted on p. 276. 



242 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

now and then belittled by scholars, stigmatized as 
" modern," and denied the right to be heard. In fact, if 
circumspectly dealt with, they are witnesses of first-rate 
importance, for they have often preserved, in their naivete, 
the ideas and incidents which courtly or otherwise sophisti- 
cated writers disguise or distort or suppress. 

With this in view, I have attempted to define with some 
exactness the three types of folk-tales which we must bear 
in mind if we are to analyze the plot of La Mule sanz Frain, 
— The Fairy Mistress, The Giant's Daughter, and The En- 
chanted Princess. 

The first two of these types are doubtless older and more 
" primitive " than the third. But here we must walk cir- 
cumspectly and not be deceived by mere words. As soon as 
a t3rpe of folk- tale gets firmly established, the complexity of 
its pre-history ceases to be significant. Our third type, 
The Enchanted Princess, despite its heterogeneous origin, 
had become, long before the time at which La Mule sanz 
Frain was written, a simple, independent unit — a '' type- 
mdrchen " — capable of reproducing its kind indefinitely, 
without regard to the sources from which it sprang. In our 
study of La Mule, therefore, it must be admitted to equal 
standing with The Fairy Mistress and The Giant's Daughter. 

La Mule sanz Frain has suffered from both excessive 
rationalization and from misunderstanding. It has also lost 
some of its incidents. Paien, it is easy to see, is following in 
the main a popular tale which he disorders very much in his 
attempt to eliminate the frankly supernatural or to fit the 
whole to the requirements of chivalric romance. In some 
particulars he probably had no clear conception of the real 
nature of the personages and the phenomena. ^ 

^ For convenience, I have ascribed this rationalizing procedure to Paien. 
More probably the condition in which we find the story is the result of a 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 243 

In the first place, the lady of the castle is nowhere spoken 
of as dijee or as an enchanted princess, nor is it said that the 
state of things in her " waste city " is caused by spells, nor 
is there any statement that Gawain's adventures in the 
castle are the work of magic. Perhaps Paien thought 
that magic might be taken for granted.^ Anyhow, a very 
slight examination of the plot shows that it is closely related 
to the third of the types just defined — The Enchanted 
Princess. Indeed, it is a particularly instructive example 
of the formation of this type, for the first and second 
types {The Fairy Mistress and The Gianfs Daughter) are 
imperfectly amalgamated so that the poem is full of con- 
tradictions. 

A single feature of La Mule is enough to associate it with 
type I {The Fairy Mistress) in unmistakable fashion. The 
waste castle lies beyond a rapid stream, spanned only by a 
narrow rod of iron ^ which bends under the passenger as he 
crosses it on the (magical) mule provided for his conveyance. 
The river is very horrible: — 

Gauvains chemine tote vole 
Tant que il vint a I'eve noire 
Qui estoit plus bruianz que Loire; 
De 11 tant voil dire sanz plus, 
C'onques si laide ne vit nus, 
Si orrible ne si cruel. 
Ne sai que vos en deisse el 
Et si vos di, sanz nule fable, 

gradual working over by various tellers. Since Paien, however, is the only 
redactor on whom we can lay our hands, we may conventionally regard him 
as the representative of all. The argument is not affected; it is merely 
simplified. 

1 Heinrich von dem Tiirlin, in borrowing the plot of La Mule, deemed it 
wise to explain that enchantment had been at work, and even took pains to 
bring in the figure of a magician, with the sober statement that he was 
" ein pfaffe wol geldrt " (see p. 51). 

2 It is only a dor (three inches) in width (v. 404). 



244 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Que ce est li fluns au deable 

Par sanblant et par avison, 

Ni voit-l'en se deables non ^ (w. 390-400). 

One might doubtless argue that La Mule is tricked out 
with scraps from Chretien. Thus the river and the bridge 
correspond to the river and the sword-bridge in the CharreUe; 
the herds of beasts that do homage to the mule, to those 
which the questers pass in Ivain; the fountain which is 
reached soon after passing through the forest of wild beasts, 
to that in Ivain or in the CharreUe;^ the fact that the mule in 
darting through the gate of the turning castle loses part of 
her tail (vv. 468-470), to the cutting in two of Gawain's 
horse by the portcullis in Ivain; the vilain who appears to 
have the lions and serpents under control, with the mon- 
strous herdsman in the same poem. But such a derivation 
from Chretien would be erroneous. In the first place, these 
traits are not the personal property of Chretien.^ In the 
second place, one of the best parallels (the docking of the 

^ These lines suggest Christian and Moslem legends in which those who 
cannot cross to Paradise by a bridge fall into hell. The Christian idea (as 
found in The Purgatory of St. Patrick and elsewhere) was certainly present 
to the mind of Paien, as his language shows. The valley of fire-breathing 
serpents, where it is very cold from the north wind (vv. 169 S..), may also 
have been tricked out in Christian legendary embellishments. It suggests 
the alternations of cold and heat which increase the torments of the damned. 
It should be observed, however, that the introduction of details from Chris- 
tian legend in no way invalidates the claim of the story to belong to the 
category of Visits to the (heathen) Other World. Even if the narrow bridge 
be taken from Chretien, that would not change the main situation. Cf. 
Fritzsche, Romanische Forschtmgen, II, 266-267, 275-276; Baist, Zeitschrift 
fiir Romanische Philologie, XIV, 159-160; Miss Hibbard, Romanic Review, 
IV, 166 ff. 

2 This spring in LalfwZe shows no magical properties; yet it is emphasized 
in a way somewhat out of proportion to its apparent unimportance, as if it 
once meant more than it now does (w. 217 £f., 385-386, 1094). 

3 For Celtic parallels of capital importance see A. C. L. Brown, Publica- 
tions oj the Modern Language Association, XX, 693 ff. 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 245 

mule's tail) is much more primitive than the corresponding 
incident in Ivain and cannot possibly be taken from it. The 
whirling castle belongs to the same general category as per- 
petually slamming doors and clashing cliffs (symplegades) . 
It is proper and primitive for an animal or bird to dart 
or fly through and lose its tail. Chretien has remade the 
incident.^ 

Even if all these features, however, were mere copies from 
Chretien, the case would not be altered, for enough would 
still be left to keep the tale (in part) in the other-world 
category. The lady of the castle is a fee,"^ clearly enough, 
who wishes to summon her chosen mate; the damsel who 
goes to court and purports to be the lady's sister, is the 
messenger of the fee; the mule which carries Gawain safely 
through the forest of beasts and the valley of serpents and 
across the narrow bridge, is the guiding animal familiar in 
such stories, — like the boar or the white hart or the biche 
blanche. The turning castle has also its significance with 
respect to the Other World. 

So far we have examined only certain traits or incidents 
which mark La Mule as a version of The Fairy Mistress. 
But the case has quite another aspect when we look at the 
condition of the castle (including a town) where the lady 
resides. Here we find all the characteristics of our third 
type. The Enchanted Princess. 

^ For whirling castles see Sypherd, Stiidies in Chaucer's Hous of Fame, 
Chaucer Society, pp. 144 ff., 173 ff. Note that in Fled Bricrend Curoi the 
enchanter is expressly said to set his house in motion every night by his 
magic arts (§ 80), whereas in the Old French Pilgrimage of Charlemagne 
the equally magical revolving palace of the Emperor Hugo is scientifically, 
even if humorously, accounted for on the principle of the weather vane: it 
stands still unless the wind blows (w. 334 ff.). For symplegades in general 
see Lowie, Journal of American Folk-Lore, XXI, 106 ff.; A. C. L. Brown, 
[Harvard] Studies and Notes, VIII, 81 ff. 

^ See Brown, as above, pp. 80 ff. 



246 GAW.\IN .\XD THE GREEN KXIGHT 

''A;:^/ i-iiT 3_.i -r " in times of old. 
But sometiung 1 -^ :: r. :w: the qx)t is curst." 

It is a "^ waste cit\-." though Paien has suppressed the cus- 
tomaj}- trait of ruinous houses. Xot a soul is to be seen in 
the streets except, after awhile, a mysterious dwarf, and 
later a black and shagg\- vUmn, who comes out of a crypt, 
axe in hand. Yet after Gawain has achieved the adventiu-es 
required of him. the streets are suddenly filled with great 
comi>anies of people singing and dancing. He learns that 
they have been hiding in holes and comers for fear of the 
beasts. God has delivered them through Gawain, 

£t de toz biens enluminez 

La grait qui en tenebre estoient.* 

In short, we have a plain case of a waste cit>-. and Gawain 
has released it from enchantment. 

Are there any traces of the enchanter ? Certainly. Two 
personages have shared his role between them — the vilmn 
who proposes thejeu parti to Gawain and who brings forth 
the Uons and serpents for him to contend with, and the 
knight with whom Gawain has a combat. It is the latter 
who has decapitated all pre\'ious questers and has set up 
their heads on the battlements, after a fashion common in 
disenchantment stories and in tal^ of the t^pe of The 
Giant's Daughter.- The heads on stakes are imheard-of 
adornments for the abode of a fair\- mistress, except in cases 
who-e this has borrowed scenery from other tales. The 
whirling castle itself, by the way. which we have treated as 
a sign of the Other World, may just as well belong to the 
enchantment part of the stor>'. But the case is complete 

* Vv. 103^-1033: a bit erf Scripture (Jsaiak, ix, 2; Matthew, iv, 16). 

* See Toaxry ezanqdes in Qiild, BaUads, I, 417, note; n, 507; EH, 507; 
IV, 439; V, 216; Sdiofidd, \Hon>ard] Studies and Notes, V*\ 175 ff. 



I 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 247 

without it. Still, example being better than argument, one 
may cite Li Beaus, which contains both a fairy mistress and 
a bespelled princess. The complete contrast between the 
state of things in the Isle of Gold ^ and that in the waste city 
of Sinadoun (Snowdon) ^ is an object lesson in descriptive 
folk-lore. 

Gawain, we may conjecture, had to win thrice in order to 
unspell the waste city — he had to fight with lions, with 
serpents, and with the enchanter himself. Wlien he swept 
off the magician's head, it returned to his shoulders. In- 
structed perhaps by the helpful animal, the hero knew what 
to do the next time: he either destroyed the head or chilled 
the spinal marrow \\dth the axe-blade. Then the head 
stayed off and the enchanter-giant was dead.' 

Next should come, if Paien were sticking to the t>'pe of 
The Enchanted Princess, an interview with the lady, her 
expressions of gratitude, and a happy marriage. But here 
the author suddenly returns to t^-pe I. The lady summons 
Gawain to her presence and greets him in the following 
contradictory terms: — 

" Gauvain, bien soiez vos venu! 
Si m'est il par vos avenu 
Mout granz anuiz et granz domages, 
Que totes mes bestes sauvages 
Avez mortes en ceste voie. 
Si vos covient il tote voie 
Avec moi orendroit mengier; 
Onques voir mellor chevalier 
Ne plus preu de vos ne conui " (w. 921-929). 

She declares that the death of the lions and the serpents is a 
loss to her; yet she welcomes Gawain cordially and offers 

1 Vv. 1859 ff-j ed. Hippeau, pp. 66 S. 
' Vv. 2829 ff., pp. 100 ff. 
' See pp. 49-50, 148. 



248 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

him her hand and all her possessions. The death of the 
beasts, as the poem runs, is a benefit, not a damage, for it is 
necessary to her liberation and the release of her city from 
the ban. But now she is no longer an enchanted princess, 
but an all-powerful fee who has simply been proving her 
chosen warrior. The vilain and the knight appear to have 
been acting under her orders. In short, we are at liberty 
to imagine, if we choose, that all Gawain's adventures in 
the town have been illusions, like the tricks of the/ee on Li 
Biaus in the Isle of Gold.^ We may profitably compare the 
strangely disordered but still intelUgible episode of Lancelot 
and the forthputting damsel in Chretien's Charrette? 

Nevertheless, when the lady offers Gawain her hand, she 
becomes once more, in a spasm of rationalization, an en- 
chanted princess — a fair mortal who owns thirty-nine 
castles and is eager to entrust them all to a husband strong 
enough to defend them. The confusion between our first 
type {The Fairy Mistress) and our third {The Enchanted 
Princess) is complete, and it is idle to interpret Paien's poem 
as belonging exclusively to either of them. 

A still further embroilment is caused by the introduction 
of the Bridle. The damsel who started Gawain on the whole 
adventure had come riding up to Arthur's hall on a mule that 
lacked this piece of furniture. She had complained bitterly 
of its having been taken away from her, and had promised 
her hand to any knight who should recover it. When 
Gawain has supped with the lady of the castle, he asks her 
to give him the bridle. She offers him instead her hand and 
her territories in gratitude, she says, for the service he has 
done to her sister — that is, to the damsel with the mule. 
Gawain declines both, — " Many thanks, gracious lady! 
But let me have the bridle, please, for it is time for me to be 
1 See p. 264. 2 See pp_ 263 ff. 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 249 

going." She accedes at once. The bridle is hanging on a 
silver peg in her chamber. 

The situation is utterly incomprehensible. If the lady is 
really the mistress of the beasts and the contriver of the 
whole affair, it must be her own fault that the bridle is so 
hard to get, and there is no sense in her loving Gawain for 
doing a favor to her sister in the winning of an article that 
she herself must desire to retain. Nor is the tangle un- 
ravelled by what follows. Gawain rides back to court on 
the mule and is joyfully received by the damsel. We take it 
for granted that he delivers the bridle, though Paien neg- 
lects to say so. King and queen and knights beseech her to 
remain with them, but she protests that it is not within her 
power; she must go at once. She cannot even accept an 
escort. And so she mounts her mule and rides away alone. 

Congie prent et si s'en depart; 
Si se remist en Tanbleure. 
De la damoisele a la mure, 
Qui s'en est tote seule alee, 
Est ci I'aventure finee. 

The end is pretty, but, from the point of view of a mdrchen, 
quite xmsatisfying. Folk-tales do not leave the point of the 
story in the dark. Their hearers object to puzzles. '^ What 
did the damsel want of the bridle '' ? " Why had it been left 
in the city ? " " Where did she go with it when it had been 
returned to her ? " " Back to the city ? " Such are the 
questions which a mdrchen has to answer. " Did the ears of 
Donatello really resemble those of the Faun of Praxiteles ? " 
As the poem reads, they find no reply. 

We have regarded the mule as filling the part of fee's 
messenger or enticing beast. Let us look for a moment at 
the other side of the story, — at the t3^e that we have 
called The Enchanted Princess. In this t3^e, as we have 



2SO GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

noted, the helpful animal is often a human being, a relative 
of the princess, perhaps her brother, and he owes his beast's 
shape to the spells of the same magician who has brought 
both her and her city under the ban. The assistance that he 
gives the hero has for its object in part his own release from 
the magic that has transformed him.^ Such an animal is 
likely to be a horse and to convey the hero to the enchanted 
city, where alone the unspelling adventures can be carried 
through. 

The mule, then, is a man or woman under spells. This 
Paien, perpetually vacillating between the two types, has 
either forgotten or suppressed. But somehow Paien has 
kept the bridle, though nobody in his poem makes any use 
of it or seems to have any ideas about it; for a bridle is 
supererogatory on a creature that needs no guidance or 
control. Its function, however, is obvious, for it is a talis- 
man that may be seen in active operation in the folk-tale of 
The Magician and his Pupil, of which versions innumerable 
have been printed.^ // is by virtue of the bridle that the mule 
can resume his human shape. Its loss condemns the be- 
spelled man (or woman) to retain the form of an animal 
until it is recovered. 

With these points in mind, one can have no difficulty in 
reconstructing Paien's plot in the form of a mdrchen of the 
type that we call The Enchanted Princess. Let us try: — 

1 See pp. 200 £F., 237. 

2 See Bolte and Pollvka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. Hausmdrchen 
der Briider Grimm, II, 60 ff . (No. 68) ; William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum 
Anglorum, ii, 171 (ed. Stubbs, Rolls Series, I, 201); J. F. Campbell, The 
Celtic Dragon Myth, pp. 105, 107; Mac Innes, Folk and Hero Tales, p. 173; 
Scottish Celtic Review, 1, 73-74, 77; Mc Kay, Ancient Legends of the Scottish 
Gael, pp. 20-25; Mackinlay, Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs, pp. 
174 ff.; Hutchinson, Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft, 2d ed., 1720, 
pp. 266-267; Teit, Traditions of the Thompson River Indians, p. 88; Loth, 
Les Mabinogion, 2d ed., II, 63, note. 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 251 

An enchanter has laid spells upon a princess and her city. The 
lady is immured in the donjon keep and the city is reduced to solitude 
and rmn, — there are wild beasts in its desolate houses and dragons 
in its pleasant palaces. The lady's brother is changed into a horse, 
and the bridle which alone can undo the charm that keeps him in 
that shape is locked up in the tower with the imprisoned lady. The 
horse associates himself with a hero and acts as guide and helpful 
animal. The enchanter is slain and the city is restored to its pristine 
splendor. The lady is released and marries the hero. But first either 
she or the hero applies the taHsmanic bridle — now happily in good 
hands — and the prince her brother resumes his human likeness. 

This sketch of a plot is offered for what it is worth. Every 
reader of marchen will at least acknowledge that it does no 
violence to folk-lore. As for Paien's little romance, our 
sketch accounts for quite as much of it as can ever be 
reduced to consistency. For he has so jumbled together his 
materials, whatever they were, that there is no adjusting 
them. Still, if we are willing to pass incessantly to and fro 
iromfee to enchanted princess and from enchanted princess 
to fee, we can read his poem with pleasure. For my part, I 
find it charming, and would not change a word of it. 

Enough has been said to show that the main plot of the 
Mule, from whatever point of view we look at it, has no 
significance for the history of the Challenge. That episode 
must be studied by itself, as we have studied it, and not in 
the accidental context in which it occurs in La Mule sanz 
Frain. 

Heinrich von dem Tiirlin, early in the thirteenth century, 
inserted almost the whole of Paien's little romance of La 
Mule sanz Frain into the vast compilation which he entitled 
Diu Crone} In weaving it into his loose fabric he allows 
himself certain changes which, though of no significance for 
the history of the Challenge, are not without interest for the 
student of fiction. Heinrich sees well enough that Paien's 
1 Vv. 12627 ff-> ed. Scholl, pp. 155 ff. 



252 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

treatment of the subject is inconsistent, contradictory, and 
obscure, and he takes some pains to clear up the story. His 
efforts, however, are characterized rather by zeal than by 
felicity. 

In his new construction, Heinrich makes free use of an 
episode known as The Rival Sisters, which occurs in the 
following quite intelligible form in Chretien's Ivain: ^ — A 
lord dies, leaving his realm to his two daughters to hold in 
common. The elder ousts the younger. Both appeal to the 
Round Table for aid, and each is eager for the championship 
of Gawain. He is secured by the elder; the younger gets 
Iwain. After an indecisive combat between them, Arthur 
divides the heritage between the sisters. 

This is a very simple episode (something like Eteocles and 
Polynices) and neither has nor requires (indeed, it does not 
properly admit) an enchanted castle and all sorts of proofs 
of valor. It is quite possible that Paien knew the episode, 
either from Chretien or from some other source, for he 
makes the damsel of the mule and the lady of the castle 
sisters, and he represents the former as deprived of a bridle 
which turns up in the possession of the latter. But Paien, 
if he was acquainted with The Rival Sisters, used it very 
sparingly, and his poem can by no means be regarded as a 
version of that story.^ 

Heinrich, however, is thoroughgoing according to his 
lights. Here is his tale: — 

A certain king at his death has left his kingdom to his two daughters, 
Amurfina and Sgoidamur, to hold in common, and has bequeathed to 
them a bridle, informing them that, so long as they keep it they will 
keep their realm. Amurfina, the elder, has got possession of this 
talisman and has ousted her sister from the inheritance. Sgoidamur 

^ Vv. 4703 ff. 

2 Orlowski in his edition of La Mule (La Demoiselle d la Mule, Paris, 191 1) 
attempts to derive Chretien, Paien, and Heinrich from a common source, 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 253 

has set out for Arthur's court to lodge a complaint. Amurfina enlists 
the services of Gawain, whom her messenger finds at a castle. At 
Amurfina's residence Gawain has an adventure which appears to be 
derived, with variations, from the Chevalier a VEpee. He is toying 
with the lady when a sword, which hangs over the bed, shoots from 
its sheath and encircles his waist like a girdle, pressing him so hard 
that he looks for nothing but death; but it releases him when he 
swears everlasting fidelity to Amurfina (w. 8509-8610). She then 
becomes his amie. A magic potion deprives him of his memory and 
makes him think that he has been living there as Amurfina's husband 
for thirty years! He even forgets his own name. After a time, how- 
ever, he comes to himself and takes his leave, in order to pursue the 
adventure on which he had been bound when his attention was 
diverted by Amurfina's summons. He promises to return as soon as 
possible (w. 9080-9084). 

After various happenings, Gawain reaches Arthur's court (w. 
12,391-12,426). Soon after, Sgoidamur arrives, in quest of a champion 
who shall win the bridle for her, and the episode derived from La Mule 
sanz Frain begins (v. 12,627). After an unsuccessful attempt on Kay's 
part (as in the French poem), Gawain undertakes the enterprise and 
carries it through in complete obHvion of the fact that he is acting 
against the interests of Amurfina. When he learns the truth, he takes 
both Amurfina and the bridle to Arthur's court, where he marries 
Sgoidamur to a knight and is formally wedded to his own amie. 

Heinrich, we observe, has found Paien's account of the 
bridle incomplete and has invented a function for it. The 
father of the young ladies left it to them as a talisman that 
ensured them possession of the kingdom. This is quite 
absurd in itself — which might be pardoned in a romance — 
but it is doubly unsatisfactory because it brings the bridle 
into no proper relation with the mule. 

The person who challenges Gawain to the beheading 
game is, in the Crone, the uncle of Amurfina and Sgoidamur, 
— one Gansguoter. When Gawain has made his way into 

and holds that Chretien has departed from it most widely of the three (p. 63). 
His arguments are not worth a moment's consideration and have, indeed, 
met with no favor from his reviewers (see R. T. Hill, Romanic Review, IV, 
392 £E.; Roques, Romania, XL, 1445.). 



254 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

the Whirling Castle by the aid of the mule, he sees a fine- 
looking man, splendidly attired. Immediately, however, 
this man is changed into a frightful shape, which he wears 
during the beheading game, and, apparently, during the 
whole of Gawain's stay at the castle. This is Gansguoter, 
who is said to be " ein pfaffe wol gelert " (v. 13,025). He 
seems to be the contriver of all the enchantment. 

A number of differences between La Mule sanz Frain and 
the Crone may be specified. Gansguoter has an axe (" ein 
breit helmbarten," v. 13,052) but no block. He strikes two 
harmless blows, both of which miss: — 

Die helmbarten vuorte 

Gansguoter unde tet zwen siege, 

Daz er vervaelte alle wege 

Und ime den lip verserte niht (w. 13,164 ff.). 

He merely wished to test Gawain's valor. The knight with 
whom Gawain afterwards fights loses his life. Gawain 
unlaces his helm and decapitates him, and Gansguoter 
sticks the head on the single vacant stake (vv. 13,384 ff.). 
These, and other variations, are certainly the work of 
Heinrich and have no significance for our problems. 

But the German romancer does good service in one 
respect. The Bern MS., our sole authority for the text of 
La Mule sanz Frain, expresses the terms of the jeu parti as 
follows: — 

" Te partis orendroit .1. jeu, 

Et por ce que je vol mon leu, 

Si pren tot a ta volente." 

Et .G., li a creante, 

Qu'il en prendra loquel que soit. 

" Di, fet .G., que orendroit, 

Si m'ait Dex, Fun en prendre, 

Ne de mot ne te mentire, 

Que je te tieng a mon bon oste." 

" Anuit, fait il, la teste m'oste 



LA MULE SANZ FRAIN 255 

A ceste jusamre trenchant, 

Si la m'oste par tel convant 

Que la toe te trencherai 

Lou matin, quant je revenrai: 

Or pren, fet il, sanz contredit." 

" Mout saure, fait .G., petit, 

Se je ne sai louquel je preigne; 

Je prendre, conment qu'il aviegne. 

Anuit la toe trencherai, 

Et lou matin te renderai 

La moie, se viax que la rende." 

" Mai dahez ait qui miax demande, 

Fet li vilains, or en vien done." ^ 

There is undoubtedly a lacuna after v. 578. The vilain 
should subjoin the alternative, — "Or I will cut off your 
head to-night and you may cut off mine to-morrow." Other- 
wise the jeu parti lacks one of its terms, and Gawain's reply 
is inept. Fortunately Heinrich von dem Tiirlin had the use 
of a text of La Mule which had no lacuna here, and his verses 
enable us to fill the gap in the sense.^ In the Crone the 
challenger is perfectly expHcit: — 

" Vriunt Gawein, nim 
Under zwein spiln ein spil, 
Diu ich dir beidiu teilen wil, 
Und daz ich daz ander habe : 
Slach mir iezunt min houbet abe 
Mit dirre barten, die ich trage, 
Und laz mich morgen bi dem tage 
Dir abe slahen daz din, 
Oder laz mich hint slahen e.^ 

Gawain replies: — 

" Swie ez erge. 
Sit sin niht mac wesen rat 
Und ez also dar umbe stat, 
So wil ich hiute der erste sin 
Und wil dich morne daz min 
Abe slahen lazen."* 

1 Vv. 565-587. 3 Vv. 131042. 

2 Paris, Histoire Litteraire, XXX, 75. ^ Vv. 13 113 ff. 



2S6 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Thus we are able to correct the text of La Mule in the im 
portant feature of the jeu parti. 

The figure of the vilain in La Mule sanz Frain tempts to 
comparison with the personage who keeps the beasts in 
Chretien's Ivain} There are points of resemblance in the 
description. Chretien's vilain is a sufficiently friendly per- 
sonage who directs adventurers to the magic fountain and 
tells them what they have to do, at the same time warning 
them of the risk they are running. It is proper enough to 
conjecture, if one wishes, that some such well-disposed vilain 
was a part of the machinery of the enchanted castle in 
Paien's source. We may note that Paien's churl has charge 
of the lions and the serpents and lets them loose for Gawain 
to fight withal, and that Chretien's churl is the herdsman of 
similar cattle. In Chretien's Perceval, too, a vilain attached 
to the service of the enchanted castle of the Perilous Bed, 
lets loose the lion with which Gawain has to fight in his task 
of raising the enchantment under which the castle and its 
inhabitants labor.^ Perhaps, then, Paien found in his source 
a vilain who was not friendly but acted merely as the keeper 
of the animals and let them out to combat with such knights 
as essayed the adventure. All this does not affect the 
(;ourse of our argument. If Paien had a vilain in his source, 
then he identified him with the churl of the Challenge story 
when he inserted the latter into his plot. Such details can 
never be settled, and need not detain us. 

1 Vv. 286 ff. See A. C. L. Brown, Twain, [Harvard] Studies and Notes in 
Philology and Literature, VIII, 70 ff., and Romanic Review, III, 165. 

2 Vv. 9225 ff. 



1 



VII. THE CARL OF CARLISLE 

The central incident in the Old Norse Saga of Illugi affords 
a striking parallel to The Carl of Carlisle.^ 

The Danish prince Sigurt5r, son of King Hringr, accompanied by 
his friend Illugi, has been on a viking expedition against the Orkneys 
and Scotland. In the autumn he sails for home, but his ship is driven 
north by a great storm. At last they take shelter in an inlet in Finn- 
mark. They have no fire, and Illugi rows across the fjord to seek 
some. He enters a great cave, which is inhabited by a frightful 
troll- wife GriSr, whose ugliness is described in detail. She says that 
Illugi shall get no fire unless he says three true things,^ adding, " If 
thou dost that quickly, thou shalt he with my daughter." Illugi 
consents, without seeing the daughter, who, however, appears im- 
mediately and is so fair that he falls in love with her on the spot. The 
three true speeches are made and accepted, and Illugi goes to bed 
with the girl, whose mother gives him the same permission that 
Gawain received from the Carl.^ When he attempts to act in accord- 
ance with this permission, however, GriSr seizes him by the hair 
and, brandishing a sharp knife, threatens him with instant death. 
Illugi hes quiet, and is not at all alarmed. His heart, he says, has 
never felt fear, and a man can die but once. A second and a third 
time she subjects Illugi to the same test, with a like result. There- 
upon she hails him as the bravest of mankind and declares that he 
shall have her daughter in very truth. She thanks him also as her 
benefactor, averring that he has released her from powerful spells, 
in obedience to which she has already killed sixteen brisk young men, 
all of whom quailed before her terrible knife. She thereupon tells 
Illugi her history. 

Her real name, it now appears, is Signy, and she is daughter to 
Ali, king of Alfheimar. Her stepmother Grimildr had laid spells 

1 Illuga Saga Gri'6arj6stra, chaps. 3-6, Rafn, Fornaldar Sogur, III, 
651-660. 

2 Cap. 4, III, 653 ("|7rj6 sannyrtSi). See Babrius, ed. Lachmann, No. 53. 
Many parallels are cited by Reinhold Kohler in Gering's Islenzk Mventyri, 
II, 180 ff. Compare the requirement of discovering the right answer to the 
question " what woman most desire " in the Wife oj Bath's Tale and related 
stories. 

' See p. 88, above. 

2S7 



25 8 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

upon her, that she should become a troll-wife and Uve in a cave. 
Signy's daughter Hildr was to accompany her, " and every man that 
sees Hildr, shall fall in love with her, and thou shalt murder everyone 
that thou seest in her bed." Signy's seven stepsisters (terrible witch- 
wives) are to attack Signy every night and wound her sore. She is 
never to be free from these enchantments till she meets with a man 
whom her knife does not terrify — and such a man, adds Grimildr, 
cannot be found. When the tale is finished, seven witchwives (skessur) 
come into the cave and maltreat Signy, but lUugi slays them all and 
burns them to ashes. " Gri^r said then: ' Now hast thou, Illugi, 
freed us both from these monsters, who have tormented me for eleven 
winters." " A rather long time that! " rephes Illugi. Illugi gets 
fire, and, after a month, the ship returns to Denmark, Hildr accom- 
panying Illugi as his wife. Signy arrives in Denmark somewhat later, 
and is married to SigurSr, whose father has died in the meantime. The 
marriage was happy, and the pair had many children; but Hildr and 
Illugi had none. 

The same story occurs in the Danish ballad Hr. Hylleland 
henter sin Jomfru.'' ^ 

King L0ver's daughter is taken away by a troll. He promises her 
to whomsoever of his men can bring her back. Only young Hylde- 
land dare undertake the quest. He sails to Norway, where he finds a 
sea- woman and bids her fetch the maid. He must go to the mountain 
and fetch her himself, is the reply. Entering the mountain, he sees 
the maid, who is very fair. But the troll-wife requires three truths, 
as in the saga. On their utterance, she allows the pair to sleep together, 
adding, however, that she will have Hyldeland's life before sunrise. 
Early in the morning, she stands by the bedside, whetting her knife. 
Hyldeland has recourse to runic charms, and the troll-wife bids them 
sleep in peace. Hyldeland is allowed to take his bride home with him, 
and also receives rich presents from the troll. Nothing is said of the 
disenchantment of the troll-wife. 

The Norwegian ballad of Kappen Illhugin ^ is more like 
the Illuga Saga, as the identity of names would lead 
us to expect. There is the request for fire and the battle 
with the troll- wife's sisters seven [not stepsisters]. The 

^ Grundtvig, Danmarks Gamle Folkeviser, No. 44, II, 94 ff., IV, 820 S. 
^ Landstad, Norske Folkeviser, No. 2, pp. 22 flf. 



THE CARL OF CARLISLE 259 

troll-wife herself is killed. Other parallels are noted by 
Grundtvig.i 

It is difficult not to agree with Grundtvig that the saga- 
incident is an extended and beautified version of the simpler 
story preserved in the ballads. The disenchantment of the 
troll-wife and the double marriage certainly look like later 
additions. 

Apparently, then, we have in the Illuga Saga the story of 
the rescue of a maid from a troll-wife worked up in such a 
way as to be attached to personages of rank. The disen- 
chantment of the troll-wife, and the fact that the damsel is 
her daughter, may be later modifications. Yet, on the other 
hand, it is possible that we must regard the whole rather as 
an account of the winning of the fair daughter of a troll — 
as belonging to the same class of stories as the type of 
mdrchen in which the hero subdues or kills a supernatural 
being and takes his daughter to wife.^ 

An Icelandic tale taken down in 1863 or 1864 ^ has re- 
markable points of agreement with The Carl of Carlisle and 
the Illuga Saga. 

The hero, a young peasant named Tritill, pays court to princess 
Ingibjorg. Her father in anger threatens him with death in three 
years unless he can tell him what he (the king) thinks.^ Tritill betakes 
himself to a giant, one Kolur, for counsel. On his way he is warned 
that nobody has ever visited Kolur and escaped with his Ufe. Various 
persons, however, give him advice as to what to say to the giant. He 
is to ask him three questions. He hides under the bed in Kolur's cave, 
but the giant, on his return, smells human flesh, and bids him come 

1 Danmarks Gatnle Folkeviser, II, 95, 663; III, 823. Grundtvig does not 
mention the Carl of Carlisle or the Chevalier a I'Epee. 

2 See p. 232. 

3 Rittershaus, Die neuisldndischen Volksmdrchen, No. i, pp. 1-4. 

* This is a familiar requirement in tales and ballads on the theme of 
King John and the Bishop: see Child, Ballads, No. 45 (I, 403 ff.; II, 506- 
507; IV, 459; V, 216, 291) ; Torrey, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 
XX, 209. 



26o GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

forth. Tritill creeps out and the giant threatens him with instant 
death. The lad replies that he came hither for that very purpose, 
but begs the privilege of asking three questions first. Kolur says he 
will answer the questions next morning and gives Tritill his choice of 
sleeping places — the floor or the giant's own bed. He chooses the 
bed and sleeps sound. In the morning the giant leads him out and 
declares that he will kill him at once. Tritill is calm. He allows him- 
self to be laid on the ground and tells Kolur to cut off his head without 
delay. The giant laughs: he has never seen so bold a fellow; as a 
reward, he shall Uve. 

Tritill then asks the giant to tell him what the king thinks. " He 
thinks you may perhaps be his son-in-law," is the reply. Then 
Kolur answers the other questions and gives his guest a horn and a 
spear. He charges him to invite him to the wedding. Tritill wins the 
princess, and does not forget to invite Kolur. In return for his good 
counsel, the giant asks to be allowed to pass the night with Ingibjorg, 
promising not to touch her, and offering to allow Tritill to watch 
with a Hght and a sword. In the course of the night Tritill sees a 
giant's skin on the floor and a prince in the bed. He burns the skin. 
The prince thanks Tritill and Ingibjorg for releasing him from spells. 
A part of the enchantment had consisted in his being forced to kiU 
every visitor who showed fear of death. 

An important variant of the foregoing is the Icelandic 
Blakapa, in which the heroine is condemned by a curse to 
take the form of a giantess and to kill her maidservants one 
after another until she finds one not susceptible to fear.^ 

An adventure in the Welsh Peredur ^ bears a certain 
resemblance to the Carl. 

Peredur enters a valley by means of a narrow pass. The pass is 
guarded by a chained lion. Below him is a chasm full of the bones of 
men and animals. Finding the lion asleep, Peredur is able to throw 
him into the pit and thus to make his way into the valley. Here he 
finds a beautiful castle. Before it, in a meadow, sits a grayhaired 
man, the tallest man that Peredur has ever seen, watching two young 
men, his sons, who are throwing knives. Peredur salutes the gray 
lord of the castle, who curses the porter (the Hon) for letting him pass. 

1 Rittershaus, No. 2, pp. 7-9. 

2 Loth, Les Mahinogion, II, 87-80; 2d ed., II, 83-87. 



THE CARL OF CARLISLE 26 1 

All of them now enter the castle. In the hall are tables, with abun- 
dance of meat and drink. From the bower come an elderly woman 
and a damsel, — the tallest women that Peredur has ever beheld. 
The gray man takes the head of the table, his wife by his side; Peredur 
and the maiden sit together, and the two young men serve. The 
maiden grows mournful as she gazes at Peredur. She tells him that 
she has fallen in love with him and that she is sad to think he is 
doomed to speedy destruction; to-morrow the giants who are her 
father's subjects will kill him. Next morning the mother and daughter 
beg the gray man to take a pledge of secrecy of Peredur and spare his 
life, but he refuses. Peredur kills many of the giants and one of the 
sons of his cruel host. The lord of the castle sends his daughter to 
ask mercy of Peredur, who grants it on condition that he and his 
subjects (the giants) go to Arthur, do homage, and say that it is 
Peredur who sent them. They must also accept baptism. In return, 
Peredur promises to request Arthur to grant this valley to the gray 
man and his heirs forever. The gray man accepts the terms, remark- 
ing that Peredur is the only Christian who has ever escaped with his 
Ufe. Peredur spends the night at the castle, and goes his way the 
next morning. The gray man fulfils his part of the engagement, and 
after making submission to Arthur returns to the valley as the king's 
vassal. 

The gigantic man, the lion, and the pit full of bones 
remind one strongly of The Carl of Carlisle. It is not said 
that the gray man is under spells, but there is a manifest 
parallelism between his receiving Christianity and the Carl's 
disenchantment. Of course we are to infer that the gray 
man, like the Carl, gives up his evil custom of causing the 
death of all comers. Like the Carl, he becomes Arthur's 
vassal, and as the Carl receives CarHsle, his hereditary 
domain, as a fief at the king's hands, so the gray man 
receives his own domain, the Round Valley, on similar 
terms. Peredur does not, like Gawain, take his host's 
daughter as his wife or amie, but she is in love with him, and 
the omission of the natural consequence is accounted for by 
the fact that Peredur's heart is already engaged. Indeed, 
Peredur protests his fidelity to his own lady at the very 



262 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

point in the story at which we might expect him to receive 
the love of the gray man's daughter.^ 

The whole episode shows plain traces of adaptation. 
Where it came from, it is impossible to say. It may be a 
Welsh tale, influenced in some of its details by the Arthurian 
story into which it fitted. It may (less probably) be a Cel- 
tized French romance. In either case, its parallelism to The 
Carl of Carlisle confirms the view at which we have arrived 
regarding the essential character of that poem. If the Pere- 
dur episode is really a derivative from some French romance, 
it may even go back to the French source of the Carl itself, 
though the absence of the Temptation makes that hypothe- 
sis improbable.^ At all events, the enrolment of the gray 
man among Arthur's vassals is welcome testimony to the 
correctness of the similar incident in the English poem. 

Stories of an imperious or truculent host whose daughter 
falls in love with a visitor are not uncommon, and in such 
cases the quester regularly has to fight with the host or to 
perform stupendous tasks. Here belong the episode of 
Wolf die trich and the knife- throwing heathen and the juve- 
nile adventure of Lancelot with Galagandreis.^ The general 
type is well enough represented by Jason and Medea and has 
already been considered under the title of The Giant's 
Daughter."^ The girl's honor may be magically guarded, as 
by the sword in the Chevalier a VEpee.^ The same purpose 
is served by the sleeping potion in Wolfdietrich and by the 
tricks of the fee in Li Biaus, which have many parallels in 
popular fiction.^ 

1 Loth, p. 79 (86). 

2 One might hold that the substitution of conversion to Christianity for 
disenchantment occasioned the omission of the Temptation and the behead- 
ing. This would be hard to confute, but it is equally hard to prove, and the 
question must be left in abeyance. 

3Pp. 2l8£f. 4pp232ff. 6p, pi. 

^ For the use of charms or sleeping potions in a situation more or less 



THE CARL OF CARLISLE 263 

Such tales as these do not belong to the special category 
that concerns us particularly here — that in which the host 
tempts his guest by means of a fair and seductive wife, with 
her cognizance and without any love on her part toward the 
stranger. In other words, they are not versions of the story 
that we have called the Temptation. But they frequently 
approximate it closely, and it is very likely that the Temp- 
tation (in our sense) is a development from the type of The 
Giant's Daughter. At all events, the omission of the wife 
from any version of the Temptation (as in the Chevalier) ^ 
brings the two kinds of plot very close together. The epi- 
sode of the Imperious Host in Humbaut,^ might almost as 
well be referred to one as to the other. 

As an example of the complexities and uncertainties of 
such discussions, we may examine a curious episode in 
Chretien's Charrette.^ 

Lancelot meets a fair damsel who offers him hospitality on out- 
spoken terms: 

" Mes osteus, 
Sire, vos est apareilliez 
Se del prandre estes conseilliez; 
Mes par itel herbergeroiz 
Que avuec moi vos coucheroiz " (w. 950-954)- 

He accepts the hospitality but wishes to be excused from the terms. 
She is firm, however, and he complies since needs must. Supper is 
ready when they enter the hall, but no attendants are visible. Indeed, 
there is no one but the damsel herself in the whole enclosure, which is 
surrounded by a high wall and a deep " water." After supper the 
lady asks Lancelot to go out and amuse himself until he thinks she 
has gone to bed, reminding him of his promise. When he returns, 

similar, see Child's observations on the ballad of The Broomfield Hill, No. 43 
(I, 390 ff., 508; II, 506; III, 506; IV, 459; V, 290). 

1 P. 92. 

2 Pp. 99 ff. 

3 Vv. 941 ff. (ed. Foerster, Der Karrenritter, pp. 35 ff.). Cf. Paris, 
Romania, XII, 468; Rh^s, Arthurian Legend, pp. 102, 140. 



264 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

she is not to be seen, but Lancelot says he will seek her in order to 
keep his word. As he enters a chamber, he hears a loud cry from 
another room. Going thither, he discovers a knight attempting to 
force the damsel, who is calling for help. The door is open, but it is 
guarded by two knights with drawn swords and four men-at-arms 
with axes. Forcing his way in, he " aert parmi les tanples " the knight 
who is attacking the damsel, and, leaping between the bed and the 
wall, faces the others, who have followed him from the door. The 
lady then sends away the knights and men-at-arms. They retire 
obediently, and she then remarks to Lancelot — 

" Sire, bien m'avez desresniee 
Ancontre tote ma mesniee. 
Or an venez, je vos an main " (w. 1 201-1203). 

Then Lancelot fulfils his promise, but he is so offish that she rises, 
bids him good-night, and retires to her own chamber. Next morning 
she conducts him some distance on his way. 

Here we have one of the many instances in which Chre- 
tien has failed to understand his original (whatever it was) 
or in which, though retaining the incidents, he has sup- 
pressed their significance. Nothing can be clearer than that 
the damsel is a fee, like the fee of the lie d'Or in Li Biaus 
Desconeus, and that the knights and men-at-arms are acting 
in accordance with her directions in order to test Lancelot. 
We are at liberty to take them as illusions, if we like.^ As 
the fee of the lie d'Or plays tricks on her lover, though eager 
to receive him,^ so this fee plays tricks on Lancelot. It 
would, of course, be the proper conclusion of this adventure 
for Lancelot to become the lover of the fee, but his passion 
for the Queen, and his devotion to his quest, prevent that, 
and the catastrophe is changed (whether by Chretien or 
some predecessor) to fit the circumstances. 

^ Foerster (note on v. 1194, p. 372) sees that the whole adventure, so 
far as the rescue of the damsel is concerned, is " ein elendes Blendwerk, ein 
abgekartetes Spiel," but he draws no inference. His note on v. 1371 (p. 373) 
gives the impression that the nature of the situation escapes him. 

2 Vv. 4460 ff., ed. Hippeau, pp. 159 ff. 



THE CARL OF CARLISLE 265 

An amazing parallel (hitherto, I beHeve, unrecorded) to 
the tricks of the jee of the lie d'Or, may be found in the 
Eachtra mhic na Miochomhairle (" Adventures of the Son 
of Bad Counsel ") by Brian Dhu O'Reilly (?), who was 
living in or about 1725. Part of this tale is given by Ken- 
nedy in his Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, pp. 133 ff. 
(cf. pp. 233 ff.) Magic tricks of this nature are not seldom 
resorted to, in popular fiction, by a woman in defence of her 
honor, and it would take an (Edipus to untwist the tangles 
and arrange the clues in order. Fortunately, nothing of the 
kind is my duty at present.^ 

If we had Lancelot's adventure in its original form, we 
should probably find that the intent of the trick was to pre- 
vent the knight from winning the lady unless he had valor 
enough to take long odds in a fight. Very Ukely there was 
no " forcing " in this original. 

There is a curious place in Malory's Seventh Book that 
bears this out. 

When Gareth had succeeded in reKeving Dame Lyones, the lady 
of the Castle Perilous, and had been accepted as her betrothed hus- 
band, she agreed to come to his bed, which was to be made in the hall. 
But her sister, the damsel Lynet, perceiving what was afoot, and 
thinking the lady " was a lytel ouer hasty that she myghte not abyde 
the tyme of her maryage," used "her subtyl craftes" (enchantments, 
of course) to hinder. There appeared at the bedside " an armed 
knyght with many lyghtes aboute hym, and this knyghte had a longe 
Gysarme in his hand and maade grym countenaimce to smyte hym." 
Gareth leaped out of bed and sprang towards him. The knight 
wounded him, but Gareth struck him down, and, unlacing the helmet, 
cut off his head. Dame L3niet "toke vp the hede in the syghte of 

1 Cf. Rua, Novelle del 'Mambriano' del Cieco da Ferrara, pp. 85 ff; R. 
Kohler, Kleinere Schriften, 1, 163; Prate, Zeitschrift fitr Volkskunde, I, 113- 
114; Rittershaus, Die neuisldndischen Volksmdrchen, pp. 421-422; Mac- 
dougall, Folk and Hero Tales, pp. 164 ff.; Straparola, night 2, tale 3; Men- 
ghin, Aus dem deutschen Siidtirol, p. 50; Folk-Lore, V. 155; Webster, 
Basque Legends, 2d ed., pp. 128-129. 



266 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 



I 



hem alle, and enoynted it with an oyntement there as it was smyten 
of, and in the same wyse she dyd to the other parte there as the 
hede stak. And thenne she sette it to gyders, and it stak as fast as 
euer it did. And the knyghte arose lyghtely vp, and the damoysel 
Lynet put hym in her chambre." Gareth had a similar experience 
some nights later. This time he cut the head into a hundred pieces 
and threw them into the moat; but Lynet's ointment was still effica- 
cious. The result contemplated by Lynet (antenuptial continence) 
appears to have been achieved.^ 

This episode, by the way, is not a version of the Challenge 
(or Beheading Game). It has nothing in common with that 
story except the axe and the replacing of the head. The 
strange knight is simply one of those supernatural beings 
whose heads come on again when severed. The use of oint- 
ment is a bit of rationalization, as in the Dutch ballad of 
Halewijn.2 

The Temptation is in some form or other a very ancient 
story. We may even detect its main outlines in the myth 
of Ixion and Hera. Ixion has incurred the wrath of the 
gods and is a fugitive. Zeus takes pity on him and receives 
him as a guest. But he falls in love with Hera, who informs 
her husband. Zeus, to test Ixion,^ causes a cloud to take 
the shape of the goddess, with results that are familiar to 
everybody.* This is not our story, but it is much more like 
it than some mediaeval documents are to the conjectural 
reconstructions of us theorists. It may pass, at all events, 
as complete proof that the idea of a host's testing his guest 
by means of a wife, and with her cognizance, is not neces- 
sarily a freak of mediaeval fancy. 

1 Malory's MorteDarthur, book vii, chaps. 22-23 (ed. Sommer, I, 247 £f.). 

2 P. 157. [ 

' " Test " is the very word: Sonixa^uv avrbv (Lucian, Dialogi Deorum, 6); 
(iov\6/j,€vos doKLfiaaaL (scholium on Euripides, Phoenissae, 119 2). 

^ See the passages collected and discussed in Roscher's Ausfuhrliches 
Lexicon, II, i, 766 ff. 



THE CARL OF CARLISLE 267 

This idea, without which our special story of the Tempta- 
tion has no existence, is by no means simple in origir^. We 
have seen that it has connections with the theme of the 
Fairy Mistress and the theme of the Giant's Daughter, and 
so, undoubtedly with the hideous but venerable superstition 
of lustful demons of the Lilith order. But these relations 
by no means exhaust its complex pedigree. The idea goes 
back also to a custom that still survives among savages and 
may be traced in the ancient history of some civilized 
nations. To lend a female slave or one's daughter or even 
one's wife to a guest is a trait of barbarous hospitahty too 
famihar to require extensive illustration.^ The custom 
obtained in ancient Ireland and ancient Wales. ^ 

This derivation supplies us with one element of the 
Temptation story — that which gets frankest expression in 
Pucci's poem. The host is carrying hospitality to its utmost 
conceivable limit in an act which may well provoke the 
guest to a polite ceremoniousness of protest. We have here 
a fine instance of the mediaeval fondness for superlatives, 
for depicting a quality per se in its most extravagant devel- 
opment — the same tendency that gave us patient Griselda, 
discourteous Kay, uncompromising Cordelia. It would be 
a mistake to regard these types, however, as invented 
ad hoc. Such invention, though sporadically possible, is 
unusual in mediaeval fiction. The ethical type is usually 
developed out of a primitive custom (as here) or a bit of 
fairy-lore (like Griselda) or mythology (Uke Cordelia) which 

1 Westermarck, History of Marriage, pp. 73 ff.; Spencer and Gillen, 
Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 93, loi ff.; W. E. Roth, Ethnological 
Studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines, Brisbane, 1897, 
p. 182; Marco Polo, ii, 47 (Yule, III, 48); Liebrecht, Orient and Occident, 

II, 543-544. 

2 See, for example, Stokes, Revue Celtique, XI, 43; Fled Brier end, §63; 
Kulhwch and Olwen, Loth, Les Mabinogion, 2d ed., I, 252; d'Arbois de 
Jubainville, Cours, V, 7-8; VI, 320; Ossianic Society, II, 178-179. 



268 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

originally had little or no tendenz. Anything can be allego- 
rized or worked up into an exemplum. Touchstone moralized 
the sundial and Jaques the weeping deer into a thousand 
similes. 

But disenchantment is an essential point in the Tempta- 
tion, as exempHfied by the Carl of Carlisle. Here we may 
see connections of some sort with the well-known idea of 
disenchantment by personal contact, especially by kissing i 
or by admitting the bespelled person to one's bed.^ This ' 
is a very old and widespread belief. Nevertheless, in many 
stories, it may easily be recognized as a substitution for 
another conception, perhaps more primitive.^ The woman 
who is released from spells by the kiss or by marriage is 
often merely a surrogate for an immortal. Union with a 
man reduces her to the condition of humanity, at least for 
the time being. This is the essential point in the swan- 
maiden story, which is found throughout the earth. As 
time goes on and Christianity stigmatizes all such super- 
natural creatures as demonic, the situation is saved by 
regarding them not as nymphs, but as mortals under spells, 
and the old means of bringing them into the ranks of man- 
kind is regarded as a means of release and restoration. Thus 
nymphs become enchanted princesses, and gods become be- 
spelled knights.^ As stories grow more complicated, the 
conditions of restoration increase in complexity, until at 
last mere union with a mortal may become only one of a 
number of conditions necessary to reverse the spell. Thus 
a final beheading (which slays the enchanted body) may be 

1 See Child, Ballads, I, 288 ff., 2973.; II, 502; IV, 454; V, 213, 289; 
Schofield, Studies on the Libeaus Desconus, pp. 199-208; Maynadier, The 
Wife of Bath's Tale, pp. 19 ff., 191. Cf. p. 205, above. 

2 It is possible, however, that both notions are equally old. The point is 
impossible to determine. 

^ See p. 236. 



THE CARL OF CARLISLE 269 

necessary to enable the bespelled person to come to life in 
his proper form. The fact that these two conditions (con- 
tact and decapitation) are so often associated (as in the 
class of mdrchen known as The Frog Prince) is significant 
here, for the Temptation and the beheading are similarly 
associated in The Carl of Carlisle, and this tends to prove 
that the test with the wife in that romance gets its efficacy 
as an unspelling operation (in part, at least) from the 
principle of disenchantment by personal contact. In this 
way our Temptation enters into relations of an interesting 
nature with The Wife of Bathes Tale and other members of 
that group, in some of which the loathly lady is disenchanted 
not by marriage merely, but by the complete submission 
of her husband to her will. Compare the unspelUng of the 
Carl by the test with the wife and other means which, taken 
together, constitute a similar submission to his will on the 
part of Gawain. 

It is to be observed that the brother of the loathly lady 
in the ballad of the Marriage of Sir Gawain is a terrible 
fellow in a " carlish " shape armed with a club,^ but that he 
owes his monstrous figure, as she owes her ugHness, to en- 
chantment.2 The ballad does not say that the brother gives 
up his ferocity or is released from spells when Arthur learns 
the answer to the question " what women most desire " and 
Gawain accepts the loathly lady; but the dame's marriage 
with Gawain and her husband's complaisance suffice to dis- 
enchant her, and one would expect her brother to be freed 
Ukewise. In the closely related romance of The Wedding of 
Sir Gawain,^ there is at all events a reconciliation between 
King Arthur and Dame Ragnell's brother and Arthur 

1 Child, No. 31, I, 288-296. 

2 Stanza 48. 

^ Madden, Syr Gawayne, pp. 298 ff. 



270 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

promises to take him into favor. ^ In the romance, however, 
only the Dame is said to have been a victim of *' nygram- 
ancy." ^ As to the brother, he is described as " a quaynt 
grome, armyd well and sure; a knyght full strong and of 
greatt myght." ^ His quarrel with Arthur is that the king 
has wrongfully bestowed his land upon Gawain.^ In both 
the romance and the ballad he is angry with his sister for 
betraying the secret '^ what women most desire.'' ^ Such 
anger does not seem reasonable if he is under enchantment; 
but there appears to be a contradiction anyway, since — 
whether he is under enchantment or not — he ought to be 
willing to have his sister freed from spells, and the betrayal 
of the secret was necessary to that end. It is hard to avoid 
the inference that, if we had the story complete and un- 
sophisticated, we should find that brother and sister were 
unspelled, and that the brother joined Arthur's company of 
knights as the Carl of Carlisle does.^ 

It may or may not be significant, in connection with the 
reconciHation between Arthur and the carlish brother in 
The Wedding of Gawain, that Sir Gromer Somer Joure 
(which is the brother's extraordinary name) appears under 
a similar appellation as a Knight of the Round Table in 
Malory: — " syr Grummore gummursum a good knyghte 
of Scotland" is mentioned in vii, 27 (Sommer, p. 256) and 
again as ^' Grummore grummorssum " and " s}Te Gromere 
Gromorson " in vii, 29 (p. 258). '' Syre Gromore somyr 

1 W. 812-817. 

2 V. 692. 

2 Vv. 50-52. 

^ Vv, 55-60. Compare the complaint of Sir Galleroun of Galloway in 
The Awntyrs of Arthur, st. 33, w. 404-409 (Madden, Syr Gawayne, p. 115); 
St. 33 (Robson, Three Early English Metrical Romances, p. 16). 

^ Romance, vv. 474-485; ballad, sts. 29-30. 

^ On the whole matter, see Maynadier, The Wife of Bathes Tale, 1901. 



THE CARL OF CARLISLE 27 1 

loure " in xx, 2 (p. 799) must be the same person. Malory 
throws no light on his history. The knight who sets Arthur 
the task of discovering " what women love best " in the 
Wedding of Sir Gawain is called " Gromersomer Jourer " in 
V. 62, " syr Gromer somer Joure " in v. 766, " syr Gromer- 
somer " in V. 64. Elsewhere in the same text he is called 
simply " syr Gromer " (w. 445, 453, 456, 492) or *' Gromer 
syre " (v.473). All the -er's are represented by the familiar 
sign of contraction, and '' Jourer " is clearly an error for 
" Joure " (the sign being accidentally added in v. 62) . Of all 
these forms " Gromer e Gromorson " looks most intelligible. 
It is tantalizing like Icelandic C' Gormr Gormsson"), but we 
should not expect the nominative -r to be kept in English. 
" Joure " is an unsolved riddle. The RawHnson MS. to 
which we owe The Wedding of Gawain is perhaps late 
enough to have been influenced by the printed text of 
Malory,^ though the poem itself is much older than the 
manuscript. In the ballad of The Marriage of Gawain 
(Child, No. 31), neither Gromer nor his sister Ragnell 
receives a name. The name of the transformed Turk in 
The Turk and Gawain is Sir Gromer.^ 

We may just notice, in parting, that the group of stories 
to which The Wife of Bath's Tale belongs is undoubtedly 
Irish, but that in Chaucer, as well as in the romance and the 
ballad, the plot has been brought into the cycle of King 
Arthur. 

Two texts and one fragment of Etienne's exemplum of 
The Three Knights and the Three Inns ^ are appended, from 
manuscripts in the British Museum. I follow copy. 

1 MS. C. 86, fols. 1 28 v° ff . (Bodleian Library) . Madden (p. Ixiv) assigns 
this portion of the manuscript to a period " towards the close of Henry the 
Seventh's reign." 

2 P. 120. ^ See p. 97. 



272 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

I 

Additional MS. 16589, fol. 88, col. 2 (late 13th century). 

De tribus ahlitibus 

Item dicitur quod tres milites conduxerant ad invicem quod querunt 
fortunam que dicitur aventure et cum ingrederentur Civitatem quan- 
dam dictum est eis quod non essent ibi nisi tria hospicia. in primo 
equi bene procurentur ut equites fame moriuntur. In secundo e contra 
fiebat. In tercio tam equi quam equites bene procurantur sed uix 
accideret quin ibi procurentur.^ Tres igitur milites tria hospicia 
acceperunt et invenerunt sicut eis dictum fuerat. Tercius vero miles 
qui in tercio hospitaverat sine verberibus illesis^ exivit, et cum tamen 
quereret quare non fuerat percussus dictum est eis^ quia domino illius 
domus ita obediens fuisset quod propter tantam obedientiam ei peper- 
cisset. Ci vitas est mundus in quo tres sunt hospites. Quidam sunt 
qui nimiam curam gerunt de equo procurando et militem fame perire 
permittunt. Equus est corpus. Miles est anima. vnde lob oblivis- 
catus ejus misericordia dei qui sterilem carnem suam pavit et anime 
sue non bene fecit. Item alii qui corpus suum nimis indiscrete artant 
et curac[i]o[nem] temporalium non gerunt. Tercii sunt qui utrique 
discrete discernunt et cum in omnibus suo creatori obediunt, hii sine 
magno flagello a mundo ibunt in vitam eternam."* 

II 

Additional MS. 24641, fol. 210 (first half of 14th century). 

Tres erant milites querentes adventuram, qui convenerunt et 
mutuo propositum sibi apparuerunt, qui cum ingrederentur quandam 
civitatem; dictum est eis non esse ibi nisi tria hospicia. In uno equus 
bene procurabatur, et dominus fame moriebatur. In alio e contro.^ 
In tercio vero equus et dominus bene, sed vix erat quod dominus in 
exitu non bene verberaretur. Tres igutur tria hospicia acceperunt, 
et sicut eis ^ fuerat invenerunt, excepto hoc quod tercius quod non 
fuit verberatus. et cum alii causam quererent, dixit quod domino 
domus in omnibus fuerat obediens. Civitas hec est mundus: tres 
hospites; tria hominum genera significant: quidam enim sunt qui 
nimis curant de equo procurando, neglecto domino. Equus corpus, 
miles spiritus, Job. 24. ObHviscitur ejus misericordia dei qui sterilem 

^ Read verberarentur. ^ Read illesus. ^ Read ei. 

^ See Herbert, Catalogue of Romances, III, 468. 
^ Read contra. ^ Supply dictum. 



THE CARL OF CARLISLE 273 

pavit et vidue non benefecit. Alii sunt qui indiscrete corpus atterunt 
et spiritus tantum curam gerunt. Tant charge horn le char qe le 
brise. Tercii sunt qui utrique discrete intendunt et per omnia obe- 
diunt. et tales absque flagello transeunt.^ 

Ill 

Sloane MS. 3102, fol. 7 v° (15th century). 

Deinde notandum quod illi qui sunt ducti timore humano magis 
eligunt malum anime quam corporis similes sunt etc. . . . 

Item similes sunt militi de quo dicitur quod intrans civitatem cum 
audisset quod erat ibi duo hospicia unum in quo equus male tracta- 
batur sed dominus bene, ahud in quo dominus male sed equus bene, 
eligit secundum timens magis equo quam sibi.^ 

1 Herbert, III, 536. 2 Herbert, III, 93. 



VIII. THE TURK AND GAWAIN 

The Turk and Gawain is an adaptation to Arthurian ro- 
mance of that kind of folk-tale in which the hero, on a visit 
to a giant or similarly oppressive being, is forced to under- 
take tasks that seem impossible, but triumphs by the aid 
of one or more supernaturally gifted comrades.^ To the 
same general class belong very numerous mdrchen in which 
the hero is assisted by an animal. Such helpful beasts we 
have already studied,^ and they need not here occupy us. 
It will suffice to note that the animal is often a bespelled 
man, whom the hero frees from the ban by decapitation ^ or 
otherwise, and that a tale of this class has actually been 
worked up into a long romance of Gawain — the Middle 
Dutch Walewein of about 1250,^ founded unquestionably on 
a French poem. Nor is it necessary to discuss the well- 
defined cycle in which the hero enjoys the cooperation of 
" skilful companions " — the swift runner, the dead shot, 
the man with telescopic vision, and so on.^ We may con- 
fine our attention chiefly to the more limited category in 
which the hero has an ugly or deformed or uncouth atten- 
dant, recently taken into his service, who performs the tasks 
for him, and who is freed from spells and resumes his natural 
shape when the adventure is achieved. Some of these tales 
include the unspelling decapitation of the servant, and the 
resemblance to The Turk and Gawain is often very striking. 
1 P. 121. 2 pp, 233 ff. 3 pp, 200 ff. 

* Edited by Jonckbloet, Leyden, 1846. The Walewein has been studied 
by Ker, Folk-Lore, V, 121 ff., and is summarized by Paris, Histoire Litter aire, 
XXX, 82-84 (under the title of Gauvain et V £.chiquier) . 

^ See Benfey's classic essay. Das Mdrchen von den " Menschen mit wunder- 
baren Eigenschaften," in Ausland, 1858, pp. 969 ff., reprinted in his Kleinere 
Schriften, II, iii, 94 ff . Other papers are cited in [Harvard] Stidies and Notes, 
VIII, 226, note 3. 

274 



THE TURK AND GAWAIN 275 

A j5rst-rate example makes an episode in the Gaelic King 
of Albainn} There is throwing of the venomous apple, and 
the defeated contestant is roasted. Compare the brazen 
tennis-ball ^ in The Turk and Gawain, and the boiHng of the 
giant in his own cauldron. The nominal hero (the young 
king) does nothing. Everything is performed by his servant, 
who first appears as a big ugly lad, but who before the jour- 
ney is undertaken becomes a fine-looking fellow. Nutt's 
remark ^ that the servant has been " doomed to loathsome 
transformation " until '' a hero could be induced to take up 
and carry out the quest " is sound. The change to a hand- 
some young man is misplaced. It should come after the 
accomplishment of the tasks, not at the outset. There is a 
first-rate example of the duel with the venomous apple in 
the Irish story of Finn and Lorcan mac Luirc. Lorcan is a 
fearful-looking warrior of immense strength, but not de- 
formed.^ 

The King of Albainn is a " modern " tale, " but as in so 
many other cases its fidelity to ancient tradition is avouched 
by a venerable parallel. Cormac's Glossary^ contains a 

^ Maclnnes, Folk and Hero Tales, pp. 91-93. 

2 See p. 120. 3 Maclnnes, p. 454. * See p. 222, above. 

5 S. V. priill, Stokes, Three Irish Glossaries, pp. 36-38; Cormac's Glossary, 
O'Donovan's translation, ed. by Stokes, pp. 135-137. O'Curry, Manners 
and Customs, II, 89, first called attention to the passage, and Nutt (note to 
Maclnnes, pp. 467-468), has compared it with the King of Albainn and has 
discussed its true character. See also Nutt, Revue Celtique, XII, 194-195, 
where is the remark that the Welsh Peredur shows the same theme (obscured 
in the French), the black ugly girl being transformed into a handsome youth 
when the tasks in which she assists have been performed by Peredur (Loth, 
Les Mabinogion, 2d ed., II, 103-104, 116-119). Cf. Nutt's Legend of the 
Holy Grail, pp. 138-139, 205-206; Maynadier, The Wife of Bath's Tale, 
pp. 65 ff. The utility of the Welsh, Irish, and Scottish examples of the 
transformation of the helpful attendant for our present purposes is, it should 
be observed, in no wise dependent on Nutt's theories as to the position of 
Peredur in the history of the Grail legend, nor, indeed, on any particular 
theory of the " matter of Britain." 



276 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

fragment of the Tromdam Guaire which probably belongs to 
the oldest portion of the text ^ and is therefore of the tenth 
century, at the very latest, doubtless considerably earlier. 
Senchan with his retinue of poets and students visits the Isle 
of Man — the scene of the Turk's exploits. A frightfully 
ugly youth asks permission to accompany them and climbs 
into the boat. He is described in great detail: " Rounder 
than a blackbird's tgg were his two eyes; . . . black as 
death his face; . . . yellower than gold the points of his 
teeth; greener than holly their butt; ... his belly like a 
sack; ... his neck like a crane's neck " — in short, he is a 
worthy mate for the loathly lady of Celtic story. On their 
arrival, they find an old woman on the strand. Learning 
that the leader of the party is " Senchan, Poet of Ireland," 
she asks an answer to a problem, and it is unwarily promised. 
She then speaks two verses of poetry and calls for the other 
half of the quatrain. All the poets are nonplussed. The 
ugly lad springs forward and supplies the missing lines. The 
same test is repeated. Senchan recognizes her as a lost 
poetess, for whom there has been much searching. " Then 
she is taken by Senchan, and noble raiment is put upon 
her," and she accompanies the bards to Ireland. " When 
they came to Ireland they saw the aforesaid youth before 
them; and he was a young hero kingly, radiant; a long eye 
in his head: his hair golden yellow: fairer than the men of 
the world was he, both in form and dress. Then he goes 
sunwise round Senchan and his people, et nusquam apparuit 
ex illo tempore^ The glossator adds that he was without 
doubt the " spirit of the poem," an oracle which suggests 
certain formulas of modern literary criticism.^ 

1 Zimmer, Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XXVIII, 438. 

2 Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 567-568, has an ingenious but unconvincing 
theory to reconcile the lad's ugliness with the spiritus poematis. 



THE TURK AND GAWAIN 277 

Old as it is, this tale is far from being in its original form. 
It is nothing but a marchen, artificially worked up into a 
literary anecdote. The glossator who has recorded it did 
not understand its real significance, and interpreted it in a 
highly artificial way. At bottom, it is no mere technical 
contest in capping verses, but a clear case of a hideous hag 
who requires the answer to a riddle ^ and of an ugly bespelled 
attendant who enables the quester to escape destruction at 
her hands and accomplishes his own disenchantment thereby. 
In the later text of the saga ^ the incident is modified into 
a Christian legend : ^ the hideous youth is a leper who turns 
out to be St. Caillin in disguise.^ 

In a mixed-up Gaelic story called Osgar, sl little shaggy 
man assists the Fenians at a giant's house and kills the 
giant. Shortly after he meets them in the form of a fine 
young man (the son of the King of Greece) and tells them 
he has been under spells for eight years. ^ The Knight of 
the Full Axe gets Finn safe through many adventures. He 
has previously been disenchanted (through Finn's means) 
from the form of a blackbird. He is " a little man not more 

1 The hag herself is also bespelled, and the whole story thus comes very- 
near to the Marriage of Sir Gawain in its ballad form (Child, No. 31). In 
the Marriage, there is the question " what women most desire," which 
King Arthur must answer or accept death at the hands of a monstrous carl, 
and the solution is furnished by a hideous hag. It appears that both hag 
and carl are enchanted, and the upshot of the ballad is the hag's release. In 
the story of Senchdn, it is the hag who propounds the problem and the ugly 
lad who solves it. For riddle-contests see Child's index, s. v. {Ballads, V, 
493); Laistner, Ratsel der Sphinx, I, 17 ff. 

2 Ed. Connellan, Ossianic Society, V, 11 5-1 21. 

3 Zmuner, Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XXVIII, 438. 

* We may compare the kissing of St. Caillin in the guise of a leper with the 
repulsive leper legend in the Irish Life of St. Fechin of Fore edited by Stokes, 
chaps. 37-38 {Revue Celtique, XII, 342 fif.), and the Latin life in Plummer, 
cap. 13 {Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae, II, 80-81). 

5 Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, III, 299-300. 



278 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

than three feet high," ^ Similarly Finn has tasks performed 
by him by the Big Lad in The Lad of the Skin Coverings.^ 
There is, however, no disenchantment. In another tale the 
Fenians are assisted by the friendly champion Ceadach, 
who does all the work.^ A forester assists Dyeermud in still 
another Irish story, and is finally disenchanted by de- 
capitation.^ 

In a surprising Irish story, The King of Ireland^s Son,^ 
" a short green man," who has the ability to increase his 
size enormously at will, helps the hero in fulfilling the tasks 
that win his bride — indeed, fulfils a number of them him- 
self; the rest are performed by the well-known Skilful 
Companions (the marksman, the blower, etc.).^ The green 
man reveals himself as a '' thankful dead " helper.^ His sole 
reward is to have the first kiss. The wife " was full of 
serpents " (this is a very archaic feature) and the king's son 
would have been killed by them when he went to sleep, but 
the short green man picked them out of her. We have 
essentially the same thing in Larminie's Beauty of the World. 
Here the grateful dead man takes the shape of a red-haired 
youngster; there are no skilful companions; and, instead of 
serpents, three *' lumps of fire " (which are three devils) 
come out of the lady's mouth.^ Kennedy has what is 
practically the same story, but in some ways not so well 

^ Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, pp. 235 ff. 

2 Macdougall, Folk and Hero-Tales, pp. 35 ff. 

' Curtin, Hero-Tales, pp. 477-482; so Kaytuch, in Larminie, West Irish 
Folk-Tales, pp. 77 ff. Cf. also J. F. Campbell, II, 414 ff-; Curtin, Myths, 
pp. 124 ff., 258 ff., 262 ff. 

* Curtin, Hero-Tales, pp. 5 10-5 11. 

^ Hyde, Beside the Fire, pp. 18 ff. 

^ See p. 274, note 5. 

^ On the Thankful Dead Man, see Max Hippe, Herrig's Archiv, LXXXI, 
141-183; Gerould, The Grateful Dead, London, 1908. 

^ West Irish Folk-Tales, pp. 155 ff. 



THE TURK AND GAWAIN 279 

preserved; it is said that the princess was enchanted, but 
there is no mention of serpents or of ** lumps of fire." ^ A 
red-haired man, barefoot and wobegone, acts as servant and 
performs the tasks in a Highland story. He too is one of 
the thankful dead.^ The tale is an oddly varied version of 
The Lady that Loved a Monster} 

In Bioultach,* the hero is helped by a ragged green man, 
who throws the giant and otherwise proves invaluable; also 
by a hag, who makes him promise to grant her any request 
she may make if he returns in safety. The adventures being 
successfully performed, Bioultach goes back to the hag's 
house, accompanied by the ragged green man, who dis- 
appears as Bioultach enters. Bioultach takes a seat, and a 
beautiful woman appears to welcome him. He is in despair, 
for he feels sure the hag's boon will be marriage, and he had 
rather die than wed her after seeing this woman. But the 
fair damsel reveals herself as the hag transformed. Soon 
enter eleven other beautiful women, and presently a hand- 
some gentleman. The latter is Keeal-an-Iaran, son of the 
King of Underwaves; the transformed hag is his sister, and 
so are the eleven others, formerly seen by Bioultach in their 
haggish guise. All have been " under bonds to the Bocaw 
More." The resemblance of this story to the Wife of Bath's 
Tale is patent. 

In The Bare-Stripping Hangman,^ Cormac and Alastir, 
sons of the king of Ireland, are on their travels. When they 
are about to visit the King of Riddles to sue for the hand 

1 Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, pp. 32 ff. On the connection be- 
tween the " thankful dead " and " thankful beasts," see Laistner, Ratsel 
der Sphinx, I, 26 ff. 

2 Celtic Magazine, XIII, 20 ff. 

^ Cf. [Harvard] Studies and Notes, VIII, 188, note, 250, note. 
* Larminie, West Irish Folk-Tales, pp. 35 ff. 
^ Macdougall, Folk and Hero-Tales, p. 80. 



28o GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

of the princess for Cormac, Alastir says: " Thou shalt travel 
as the King of Ireland, and I will travel as the Servant. If 
thou art told to do anything thou shalt say it is the Servant 
who does that in the country out of which thou hast come." ^ 
Alastir conquers in the riddHng contest, and Cormac gets 
the king's daughter to wife. This is very similar to the 
situation in the fine English ballad of King Estmere? 
Alastir, Hke Adler, Estmere's brother, has wonderful powers. 
He is not ugly. 

It is unnecessary to carry the subject farther. Tales of 
this type are by no means confined to Celtic territory, but 
they have been very much at home there for more than a 
thousand years. Phenomenal ugliness made a powerful 
appeal, as the evidence demonstrates, to the Celtic love for 
the grotesque and the exaggerated. On the whole, we have 
every reason to accept The Turk and Gawain as an Irish 
folk-tale which made its way into English via Celtic Scot- 
land and became attached to the Arthurian saga, more 
especially to the saga of Gawain. I can see no ground for 
insisting upon a French source for the Httle romance. It is 
much more likely to come from a popular ballad. The story 
now known as Caradoc and the Serpent,^ which came into 
the Arthurian cycle at least seven centuries ago, was told 
to Campbell of Islay in Gaelic by a travelling tinker ^ and I 

^ This part of the tale is like part of Campbell's Ridere of Riddles (Popu- 
lar Tales of the West Highlands, II, 29-30) ; cf . Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, i 
p. 12. Cases in which a servant or casual assistant answers riddles in place ^ 
of his or her master are studied by Laistner, Rdtsel der Sphinx, 1, 17 £f.; cf. 
his whole chapter on Fuss in Boots, I, 26 ff. 

2 Child, Ballads, No. 60, II, 49 ff. Formerly in the Percy MS., but torn 
out. For our knowledge of the ballad we are therefore dependent on the 
text furnished by Percy in his Reliques, edition of 1794,' compared with that 
printed in the edition of 1765. Both texts were adapted by Percy (see Child, 
loc. cit.). For riddles see p. 277, above. 

' Cf. pp. 228-230. * Tales of the West Highlands, I, xcv-xcvi. 



THE TURK AND GAWAIN 28 1 

was circulating orally in Scotland as a ballad (in Scots 
English) late enough to be captured and printed by Peter 
Buchan.i 

In conclusion, we may note that the Old French romance 
of Humbaut, in that portion which has a real plot,^ affords 
an excellent instance of the attachment to Gawain of the 
story of the " quest with a helpful companion." Humbaut 
has visited the domain of the King of the Isles ^ before, is 
well and favorably known there, and proves indispensable 
to Gawain at every turn. He is not an ugly servant, how- 
ever, but a knight without reproach. 

1 Ancient Ballads and So?igs of the North of Scotland, 1828, I, 46 Q. (The 
Queen of Scotland); Child, No. 301, V, 176-177 (Sargent and Kittredge, pp. 
626-627). On Buchan's good faith see William Walker, Peter Buchan and 
Other Papers, Aberdeen, 1915, Scholars are indebted to Miss Harper for 
bringing the tale and the ballad into comparison with the Livre de Caradoc 
(Modern Language Notes, 1898, XIII, 209 ff.; cf. Paris, Romania, XXVIII, 
214 ff.; Lot, Romania, XXVIII, 568 £f.). 

2 Vv. 1-1775, about one-half of the extant fragment. Cf. pp. 61 ff., 199 flf. 
^ This is the Other World by many infallible signs. 



IX. THE GREEN KNIGHT OF THE PERCY 
MANUSCRIPT 

For the reader's convenience I have here brought together 
most of the passages in the short Green Knight (P) of the 
Percy Manuscript that show verbal resemblance to the long 
romance (G).^ A certain number of other comparisons and 
remarks are interspersed. Few of the parallels are at all 
impressive, but on the whole there is quite as much of this 
kind of thing as was to be expected in such condensing 
(about 2500 lines to about 500), with complete transforma- 
tion in metre, vocabulary, and poetic style. The list 
strengthens the argument for derivation of the shorter 
English romance from the longer rather than from the 
French.^ 

I. In both there is a short historical introduction {G 1-26, 
P 1-18); but in G it concerns chiefly the pre- Arthurian 
period, in P it explains the founding of the Round Table. 
The " brethren of the Round Table '' are mentioned in 
G 39. Perhaps this suggested to P the desirability of 
accounting for the institution, since he was addressing an 
unlearned audience. 

2, With rych reuel orygt, and rechles merthes; 
Thcr toumayed ttilkes bi-tymej ful mony, 
lusted ful lolile thise gentyle knigtes, 
Sjrthen kayrcd to the court, caroles to make, 
For ther the fest watg ilyche ful fiften dayes, 
With alle the mete and the mirthe that men couthe a-vyse; 
Such glaumande gle glorious to here, 
Dere dyn vpon day, daunsjmge on nygtes {G 40-47). 

Some chuse them to lustinge, 
Some to dance, Reuell, and sing; 
Of mirth the wold not rest (P 241-243). 

1 See pp. 131, 135. The line-numbers follow Morris for G and Fumivall 
for'P. 

2 Pp. 130 ff. 

383 



THE GREEN KNIGHT 283 

3. Now wyl I of hor seniise say yow no more (G 130). 
Now of King Arthur noe more I mell (-P 37). 

4. In both the visit of the Green Knight takes place 
during the Christmas festivities (G 37, P 19). Arthur is 
holding court at Camelot in G 37, at Carlisle in P 85. The 
special localization at Castle Flatting " in the Forest of 
Delamore" in P 86-87 is due to the author of the short 
version or to some reviser. 

5. Both lay stress on the multitude that assembled and 
on the abundance and excellence of the viands (G 38-59, 
I 21-129; P 20-36). 

6. This kyng lay at Gamy lot vpon kryst-masse 
With mony luflych lorde {G 37-38). 

Itt fell againe the christmase 

Many came to that Lords place (P 19-20). 

7. The grayn al of grene stele and of golde hewen (G 211). 
A green weapon in P 81. 

8. " Wher is," he sayd, 

" The gouernour of this gyng ? gladly I wolde 

Se that segg in sygt " {G 224-226). 

Hee said, " I am a venterous Knight, 

And of your King wold haue sight " (P 94-95). 

9. Arthour con onsware, 

And sayd, " syr cortays knygt, 

If thou craue batayl here. 

Here faylej thou not to fygt " (G 275-278). 

Certein thus can he say: 
" As I am true knight and King, 
Thou shalt haue thy askinge ! 

I will not say thy nay, 
Whether thou wilt on foote fighting. 
Or on steed backe iusting " (P 123-128). 

10. Now hyje, and let se tite 

Dar any her-inne ojt say (G 299-300). 

Let me see who will answer this, 

A knight that is doughtye of deed (P 143-144). 



284 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

II. Gawain begs the king to allow him to accept the 

challenge, reminding him of his relationship (G 339-361, 

P 164-169). 

Bot for as much as je ar myn em, I am only to prayse (G 356). 
Remember I am your sisters sonne (P 149). 

12. " Kepe the cosyn," quoth the kyng, " that thou on kyrf sette " 

(G 372). 
" Sett the buffett well " (P 174). 

13. That thou schal seche me thi-self, where-so thou hopes 

I may be funde vpon folde, and foch the such wages (G 395-396). 
Let him come to me and seicth his paye ^ (P 146), 

14. Gauan gripped to his ax (G 421). 

Sir Gawaine to the axe he braid (P 188). 

15. That the scharp of the schalk schyndered the bones, 

And schrank thur^ the schyire grece and scade it in twynne (G424- 

425)- 
He stroke the necke bone in twaine (P 190). 

16. The fayre hede fro the hake hit [fell] to the erthe (G 427). 
The head from the body fell (P 192). 

17. The blod brayd fro the body (G 429). 
The blood burst out (P 191). 

18. The hede in his honde he haldeg vp euen (G 444). 
Bare his head in his hand (P 201). 

19. Hailed out at the hal-dor (G 458). 

Forth att the hall dore he rode right (P 202). 

20. Knygtes ful cortays and comlych ladies, 

Al for luf of that lede in longynge thay were (G 539-540). 
Knights and Ladyes waxed wann (P 260). 

21. The extraordinarily elaborated description of the 
arming of Gawain and Gringolet in (G 567 ff.) is certainly 
the work of the English poet, who delighted in such things. 
The French is not likely to have had more than a line or 
two on the subject. The Percy version, however, short as it 
is, gives several verses to this matter (265-278), and these 

1 Miswritten " praye." 



THE GREEN KNIGHT 285 

are apparently reminiscent of G. The absurd stirrups of 
Indian silk (P 275) may or may not be a misunderstanding 
of G 589. Cf. also G 609, 617, with P 271-273; G 603-604 
with P 278. 

22. So mony memayl bi mount ther the mon fynde^, 
Hit were to tore for to telle of the tenthe dole. 
Sumwhyle wyth wormej he werre^, and with wolues als, 
Sumwhyle wyth wodwos, that woned in the knarre^, 

Bothe wyth buUej and berej, and bore J other-quyle (G 718-722). 

Many furleys there saw hee 

Of wolues and wild beasts sikerlye {P 283-284). 

23. Ther fayre fyre vpon flet fersly brenned (G 832). 
Fier in chambers burning bright (P 310). 

24. The lord of the castle makes clever observations and 
enquiries which reveal that his guest is Gawain {G 901-906). 
Cf.P 331-339. 

25. Then frayned the freke ful fayre at him-seluen, 
Quat derne dede had hym dryuen, at that dere tyme, 

So kenly fro the kyngej kourt to kayre al his one (G 1046-1048). 

One thing, Sir, I wold you pray: 

What you make soe farr this way (P 328-329). 

26. For I schal teche yow to tha[t] terme bi the tymeg ende, 
The grene chapayle vpon grounde. . . . 

Mon schal yow sette in waye, 

Hit is not two myle henne (G 1069-1078). 
He saith, " As to the greene chappell, 
Titherward I can you telle. 

Itt is but furlongs 3 " (P 343-345)- 

27. ge schal lenge in your lofte, and lyge in your ese 



And I schal erly ryse. 

On huntyng wyl I wende (G 1096-1102). 

You shall abyde and take your rest, 
And I will into yonder fforrest 

Vnder the greenwood tree (P 352-354). 



286 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

28. It is quite clear that three hunts have been reduced 
to one in the Percy text, whether by the author of the short 
version or by some scribe or oral reporter nobody can deter- 
mine. The first hunt in G takes up more than fifty verses 
(1126-1177, 1319-1322), not to mention the celebrated 
account of the " breaking " of the deer (1323-1361).^ In P 
the hunting is despatched in six hues: — 
The greene Knight went on hunting (P 361). 



The Knight in the fforrest slew many a hind, 
Other venison he cold none find 

But wild bores on the plaine, 
Plentye of does and wild swine, 
Foxes and other ravine, 

As I hard true men tell (P 406-411). 



These few verses, however, seem to preserve fragments of 
a passage in G which was in all probability lacking in the 
French source. According to G, Bernlak let the harts and 
bucks go, forbidding his men to touch the male deer, since 
it was " fermysoun tyme " or close season, but — 

The hinde^ were halden in, with hay and war. 

The does dryuen with gret dyn to the depe sladej (G 11 58-1 159). 

And ay the lorde of the londe is lent on his gamnej, 

To hunt in holte^ and hethe at hyndej barayne, 

Such a sowme he ther slowe bi that the sunne heldet 

Of dos and of other dere, to deme were wonder (G 13 19-13 2 2). 

A wild boar is the quarry in the second hunt in G (1561 ff.) 
and a fox in the third (1698 ff.). I see no Hkelihood that the 
hunting was described in detail in the French Gawain, and 
the passage in the short Green Knight looks much more like 
a resolute condensation of those in the long EngHsh romance 
than Uke a reminiscence or reproduction of anything that 
stood in the French source. If the two English poems are 

1 Cf. Bruce, Englische Studien, XXXII, 23-36. 



THE GREEN KNIGHT 287 

read side by side at this point, I feel sure that any unpreju- 
diced judge will find evidence in the comparison for the 
view that the short Green Knight conaes from its English 
predecessor. 

29. " And I haf worthyly this wone^ wyth-inne, 

I-wysse with as god wylle hit wortheg to goures." 

He hasppej his fayre hals his arme^ wyth-iune, 

And kysses hym as comlyly as he couthe awyse: 

" Tas yow there my cheuicaunce, I cheued no more, 

I wowche hit saf fynly, thaj feler hit were" (G 1386-139 1). 

Sir Gawaine sware by St. Leonard, 

'' Such as God sends, you shall haue part." 

In his armes he hent the Knight, 
And there he kissed him times 3, 
Saith, " Heere is such as God sends mee, 

By Mary most of Might " (P 421-426). 

30. In G the lady says to Gawain: 

" And now Je are here, I-wysse, and we bot oure one; 
My lorde and his lede^ ar on lenthe faren, 
Other burnej in her bedde, and my burde^ als. 



ge ar welcum to my cors " (G 1230-123 7). 

In P the old lady does the talking, but the following passage 
may well be derived from that just quoted from G: — 

" Take her boldly in thine armes, 
There is noe man shall doe thee harme; " 
Now been they both heere (P 376-378).^ 

31. Speaking of the green lace, the lady says in G: 

" For quat gome so is gorde with this grene lace, 
While he hit hade hemely halched aboute, 
Ther is no hathel vnder heuen to-hewe hym that mygt" (G 1851- 
1853). 

^ The last line is corrupt. Perhaps we should read it as a part of the old 
lady's speech: " Now been ye both y-feere." 



288 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

So in P: — 

" For heere I haue a lace of silke, 
It is as white as any milke, 

And of a great value." 
Shee saith, " I dare safelye sweare, 
There shall noe man doe you deere 

When you haue it vpon you " {P 397-403). 

32. The Green Chapel is a hallow mound in G, " over- 
grown with grass " (2 180-2 181), ^* with erbej ouer-growen " 
(2190). It is not described in P, but is said to be " couered 
with euyes " (450). 

33. The whetting of the axe is described in G in a fine 

passage (2199-2204, cf. 2219-2220), which is probably due 

to the English poet. Compare P : 

He hard him wehett a fauchion bright, 
That the hills rang about (P 452-453). 

In G the sound of the whetting " clatered in the clyff, as 

hit cleue schulde " (2201). 

34. The Green Knight appears in his former Hkeness : — 

And the gome in the grene gered as fyrst, 
Bothe the lyre and the leggej, lokke^ and berde {G 2227-2228). 
The greene knight rode another way; 
He transposed him in another array, 
Before as it was greene {P 442-444). 

35. " Gawayn," quoth that grene gome, " God the mot loke! 
I-wysse thou art welcom, wyje, to my place " {G 2239-2240). 
The Knight spake with strong cheere, 
Said, " Yee be welcome, S[ir] Gawaine heere " (P 454-455). 

36. The word shunt is used of Gawain's dodging or 
shrinking in both poems. *' Quoth Gawain, * I schunt onej ' " 
{G 2280); "He saith, 'Thou schontest'" (P 460). 

37. In striking Gawain, the Green Knight — 

Bot snyrt hym on that on syde, that seuered the hyde; 
The scharp schrank to the flesche thurj the schyre grece {G 2312- 
He stroke, and litle perced the skin, [2313). 

Vnneth the flesh within (P 457-458). 



THE GREEN KNIGHT 289 

38. Gawain's actions and words after receiving the blow 
are very similar in the two versions. In G he " braydej 
out a bryjt sworde " (2319); in P " soone he drew out his 
sword " (463). 

39. " I haf a stroke in this sted with-oute stryf hent. 



Bot on stroke here me fallej " (G 2323, 2327). 
" I had but one stroke att thee, 
And thou hast had another att mee " (P 466-467). 

40. In G Bernlak, with reference to the concealment of 
the lace, says to Gawain '' Lewte yow wonted '' (2366); in 
P, " Thou wast not leele " (478). The strange accusation 
that the Green Knight brings against Gawain of having 
lost his " three points " {P 476) looks temptingly like a 
muddling up of Bernlak's remark in G 2356: " At the thrid 
thou fayled thore." But no stress need be laid on this. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

For convenience the most important documents are here 
enumerated, with a summary account of each. 

I. Fled Bricrend 

Fled Bricrend (or Bricriu^s Feast) is contained in the 
manuscript known as the Lehor na hUidre (or Book of the 
Dun [Cow]), pp. 99-112, where it is incomplete at the end 
on account of the mutilation of the manuscript. Frag- 
mentary texts occur also in other codices. The text of the 
Lebor, with a collation of Egerton MS. 93 (British Museum), 
was edited by Windisch in 1880,^ and the whole saga by 
Henderson in 1899.^ 

Maelmuire mac Ceileachair, who was killed by freebooters 
in 1 106,^ has long passed for the scribe who not only collected 
the materials for the Lebor na hUidre but wrote the whole 
manuscript. Mr. Best, however, has recently shown ^ that 
this famous codex is the work of at least three scribes, whom 
he designates as A, M, and H. M, who transcribed the 
major portion, was undoubtedly Maelmuire, and to his pen 
is referable most of the Fled Bricrend, including the page 
(112) that contains The Champion^ s Bargain. After p. 112 
several leaves are lost (five, according to Best), so that 
Maelmuire's text is incomplete. The portion that is pre- 

1 Irische Texte, [I], 235 ff. 

2 London, Irish Texts Society, Vol. II. On the manuscripts see Hender- 
son, pp. xxiv ff. 

3 Four Masters, ad ann. See Zimmer, Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XXVIII, 
671 ff. 

* Notes on the Script of Labor na hUidre, J^riu, VI, 161 ff. (1912). 

290 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 29 1 

served corresponds to §§ 91-94 of Henderson's edition. 
These sections are also preserved in Egerton MS. 93 and 
in a Leyden MS.^ For the conclusion of The Champion's 
Bargain, and consequently of the Fled Bricrend (§§ 99-102 
in Henderson) , we must depend solely on Edinburgh Gaelic 
MS. XL, which contains no part of the Fled Bricrend except 
The Champion's Bargain (in a hand, as it seems, of the 
sixteenth century), but fortunately has this in its entirety. 
There is no doubt in anybody's mind that the Edinburgh 
text is safely usable to fill the lacuna in in the Lebor na 
hUidre. §§ 95-98 are also in the Leyden MS. 

The Edinburgh copy of The Champion's Bargain was 
summarized by Kuno Meyer in 1887 {Celtic Magazine, XII, 
215 ff.) and edited by him with a translation in 1893 (Revue 
Celtique, XIV, 450 ff.),^ and the whole of the Fled Bricrend 
is Englished in Henderson's edition. There is a German 
version of the Fled Bricrend by Thurneysen in his Sagen 
aus dem alien Irland (Berlin, 1901), pp. 27 ff., in which an 
attempt is very skilfully made " die zu Grunde Hegende 
Erzahlung wieder herauszuschalen." In the translation of 
The Champion's Bargain on pp. 10-14 I have made free use 
of the work of these three scholars, comparing the Irish 
throughout and keeping as close to the original as possible. 
My friend and colleague, Professor Robinson, has had the 
kindness to criticise my attempt, and I owe much to his 
scholarship and care. The Champion's Bargain has some 
claims to be regarded as a separate and distinct tale, and 
has a title of its own (Cennach ind Ruanada inso) in the 
Lebor na hUidre as well as in the Edinburgh MS. 

^ 7^. Vossii Cod. Lat. Quart., No. 8 (see Stem, Reuue Celtique, XIII, 
27 ff.; Zeitschrift fiir celtische Philologie, IV, 143 ff.). The last page of the 
Leyden MS., containing the conclusion of the adventure, is so faded as to 
be illegible. Thus we lack §§ 99-102. 

2 Cf. Meyer, Revue Celtique, VI, 113, 191. 



292 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

The Uath version of the Challenge (§§ 75-78 in Hender- 
son) is preserved in the Lehor na hUidre only (p. no). It 
was long ago shown by Zimmer ^ to belong to a version 
of the Fled Bricrend quite distinct from that which ended 
with The Champion's Bargain, and he ascribed the presence 
of these doublets in the text of the Fled Bricrend in the 
Lebor na hUidre to the industry of a compiler. See also 
Thurneysen's important study, Die Uberlieferung der Fled 
Bricenn in the Zeitschrifl jUr Celtische Philologie, 1902, IV, 
193 ff. In 191 2 Best pointed out in his fundamental Notes 
on the Script of Lebor na hUidre (Eriu, VI, 161 ff.) that the 
leaf of the manuscript that contains the Uath sections is 
in a hand (H) quite different from that of Maelmuire (M) 
and is actually an insertion in Maelmuire's text, made 
bodily after he had finished his work and probably after his 
death. Still, the date of H cannot be much later than 1106, 
and the version of the Fled Bricrend that he took pains to 
amalgamate (rather poorly) with Maelmuire's was an old 
one. The translation (pp. 17-18, above) follows Henderson 
in the main, but with comparison with the Irish in an 
endeavor to render the original closely. Here again I have 
had the benefit of Professor Robinson's criticism. 

In 1888 Gaston Paris, on the basis of a communication 
from d'Arbois de Jubainville, compared the Challenge in 
Gawain and the Green Knight with the Uath episode.^ In 
1891 d'Arbois called particular attention to this episode, 
inquiring if it might not be connected with the legend of 
St. Denis.^ In 1892 he published a French translation of 
the Fled Bricrend from the Lebor na hUidre, but of course it 
lacks the concluding sections.^ In the same year Nutt 

1 Kuhn's Zeitschrift, 1887, XXVIII, 623 fif.; cf. Henderson, pp. xxxii £f. 

2 Hisioire Litteraire de la France, XXX, 77, note. 
^ Revue Celtique, XII, 166-167; cf. Cours, V, 147. 

* Cours de la LiMrature Celtique, V, 81 ff. (cf. 535). 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 293 

adverted to the resemblance between our romance and the 
Fled Bricrend in an article ^ on the Irish documents that 
concern The Marriage oJGawain and its analogues.^ Hender- 
son refers to the subject in his edition of the Irish saga 
(pp. 199 ff.). The resemblances between the romance and 
the two Irish versions of the Challenge are considered by 
Miss Weston, in her Legend of Sir Gawain, chap, ix (pp. 
85 ff.), where she also treats the other forms of the Chal- 
lenge. The Fled Bricrend is discussed by A. C. L. Brown 
in his Twain, 1903 {[Harvard] Studies and Notes, VIII, 51- 
56), from the point of view of the Other- World Journey. On 
Curoi mac Daire, who plays the part of the axeman in 
The Champion's Bargain, see Thurneysen, Die Sage von 
CuRoi, Zeitschrijt fiir celtische Philologie, IX, 189 ff., 336; 
cf. Eriu, II, I ff., 18 ff. 

II. Gawain and the Green Knight 

Gawain and the Green Knight is found in a single manu- 
script (Cotton MS. Nero A. x., fols. 91-124 v°, in the 
British Museum), described by Sir Frederic Madden, Syr 
Gawayne, 1839, pp. xlvii ff., 299-301. The manuscript con- 
sists of three parts (originally distinct manuscripts), of 
which the second alone concerns us. This is assigned to 
the reign of Richard II by Madden (p. 301), to the " end 
of the fourteenth century," by Ward (Catalogue of Ro- 
mances, I, 387) ^; it contains four poems (without titles), 
all written in the same hand : The Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, 
and our romance. 

1 Academy, No. 1043, April 30, 1892, p. 425. Nutt cites the summary of 
the Lebor text given by Zimmer in Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XXVIII, 623 ff. 

2 See Maynadier, The Wife of Bath's Tale, 1901, pp. 25 ff., 195-196. 

^ Cf. Gibson, The Library of Henry Savile of Banke (Bibliographical 
Society, Transactions, IX, 135; Gollancz, Patience, 1913, pp. [ix-x]). 



294 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Gawain and the Green Knight was first edited by Madden, 
Syr Gawayne, 1839, pp. 1-92 (Banna tyne Club); then by 
Richard Morris for the Early English Text Society, 1864 
(reprinted 1869, 1893, ^-nd with a revision of the text by 
Gollancz, 1897). The poem is studied by Gaston Paris in 
\l the Histoire Litteraire de la France, XXX, 71-78. There is 
a convenient bibliography by Gollancz, Cambridge History 
of English Literature I, 472-473, drawn up to accompany 
his chapter on this and the other poems usually ascribed to 
the same author (I, 320 ff.). See also Schofield, English 
Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer, London, 
1906, pp. 215-217. There are translations by Miss Jessie L. 
Weston (London, 1898; New York, 1905), and the Rev. E. 
J. B. Kirtlan, (London, [191 2]), and one from the pen of 
K. G. T. Webster will soon be pubHshed (Neilson and 
Webster, The Chief British Poets of the Fourteenth and 
Fifteenth Centuries) . 

Several of the most important documents for the study of 
the romance are cited by Madden (pp. 305 ff., 345). He 
refers to the Caradoc story in the prose Perceval, to La Mule 
sanz Frain, to Perlesvaus, to The Carl of Carlisle, and to 
Le Chevalier a VEpee. He regards the Challenge in the 
English poem as derived from the Caradoc story. The 
Chevalier he supposes to be the original of the Carl. The 
idea that the English poet drew from the Livre de Caradoc 
(in the verse Perceval) was carefully worked out by Miss 
Thomas, Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, Ziirich, 1883, 
pp. 34 ff.i This was before the Irish versions of the Chal- 
lenge had been brought into the discussion. 

In 1897 Miss Weston discussed Gawain and the Green 
Knight in connection with her theories about Gawain and 

^ Reviewed by Paris, Romania, XII, 376-380. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 295 

his fairy wife or mistress.^ She compared the various docu- 
ments, but came to no very definite results as to their 
historical relations to each other. She was convinced, how- 
ever, that the beheading game was " one of the special 
deeds of valour by which [Gawain] won the hand of his 
* other- world ' bride " (p. 102). This view, with some 
modification, has been revived in a recent paper by J. R. 
Hulbert, Modern Philology, XIII, 433 ff. A few sentences 
give his theory with admirable precision: " A fee loved 
Gawain, and sent an emissary to lure him to her. He 
traveled for a long time until he came to a hospitable castle 
where he was entertained until the appointed day by a 
shape-shifter, the same who had enticed him from court; 
then he was conveyed to the entrance to the Other World. 
There he had to submit to the beheading test; when he 
succeeded in that he was admitted to the Other World 
and led to the fairy. Probably he stayed with her some 
time, and then after having been given a magic tahsman — 
the green lace — he was allowed to return to his own land. 
Now at some time, a story-teller conceived the idea of 
making this story a poetic explanation of the founding of 
an order, probably because the green lace reminded him of 
the badge of that order. Wishing to associate with the 
order the idea of loyalty, he altered the nature of the 
material slightly by having Gawain resist the love of the 
lady, and he transferred the incident of Gawain and the lady 
to the hospitable castle, so as to bring the beheading test 
after it and make the test an evidence of Gawain's loyalty" 
(p. 459). It will be noted that Hulbert's views differ toto 
caelo from mine, and that the method of his paper and that 
of my essay in Part One are dissimilar. A second article 
from Hulbert is announced. 

* The Legend of Sir Gawain, pp. 85-102. 



296 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

A connection between the romance and " the romantic 
origin of the Order of the Garter " was maintained by 
Gollancz in his edition of the Pearl (1891). There is an 
eccentric paper on the subject by I. Jackson in Anglia, 
XXXVII, 393 ff. (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Con- 
sidered as a '^ Garter " Poem). 

III. The Green Knight 

The Green Knight, sl romance in six-Hne stanzas, extend- 
ing to 516 verses, is in the Percy MS., pp. 203-210. It has 
been thrice edited: by Sir Frederic Madden, Syr Gawayne, 
1839, pp. 224-242; by Child, English and Scottish Ballads, 
I, 35-57 (1857) ; and by Hales and Furnivall, Bishop Percy"* s 
Folio Manuscript, II, 56-77 (1868). It is reprinted (from 
the text of Hales and Furnivall) in The Percy Folio of Old 
English Ballads and Romances, London, at the De la More 
Press, 1906, II, 120-137. Percy mentioned the romance 
in 1765 (Reliques, III, xix). A copy made for him is 
among the Percy Papers in the Harvard College Library. 
He intended at one time to hand this poem over to his 
nephew, the younger Thomas Percy, for inclusion in a 
volume supplementary to the Reliques.^ Madden,^ Hales,^ 
and Gaston Paris ^ agree in regarding the piece as a late 
and much altered condensation of Gawain and the Green 
Knight. Hulbert dissents (Modern Philology, XIII, 461). 

IV. The Turk and Gawain 

The Turk and Gawain (The Turke and Gowin) is found 
only in the Percy MS., pp. 38-46. It was mentioned by 

^ Percy to Pinkerton, March 12, 1785, Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary 
History of the Eighteenth Century, VIII, 108. 

2 Syr Gawayne, p. 352. ^ Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, II, 56. 

* Histoire Litteraire de la France, XXX, 78. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 297 

Percy in 1765 (Reliques, III, xix), and has been edited by 
Madden, Syr Gawayne, pp. 243-255, and by Hales and 
Furnivall, Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, I, 88-102. 
Paris refers the poem to the sixteenth century, ^ but it may 
well go back to 1400 or shortly after. Hales remarks that 
the exchange of buJEfets proposed at the beginning of the 
piece " is apparently forgotten as the story proceeds "; but 
this is an error. There can be no doubt that the return 
buffet came in where it should, after v. 267 on p. 44 of the 
MS., but is lost because half that page is torn out. In fact, 
leaves 1-26 of the manuscript are mutilated, so that each 
of the first 52 pages is half-gone.^ It is the lower half of 
each leaf that is torn away. The beginning of The Turk 
and Gawain is preserved, and so is the conclusion, since the 
poem begins at the top of p. 38 and ends before the rent on 
p. 46. Thus there are eight gaps in the narrative, each of 
about six stanzas (or 36 verses). 

V. Le Livre de Caradoc 

Le Livre de Caradoc is inserted in the first continuation of 
the Perceval of Chretien de Troyes (the " Pseudo-Wau- 
chier ")• It occupies approximately w. 12,451-15,792 of 
Potvin's text {Perceval li Gallois, III, 11 7-2 21). Un- 
doubtedly it forms a poem by itself, having nothing to do 
with the romance in. which it is inserted.^ Potvin follows 
the Mons MS., but gives many variants from the Mont- 
pellier MS., which differs considerably. There are, in fact, 
two main versions of the Livre de Caradoc and some varieties, 
but all of them contain the Challenge (or Beheading Game), 

1 Histoire Litteraire, XXX, 68, note. 

2 See Hales and Furnivall, 1, 14, 16, 138. The pages are oddly numbered, 
the first bemg 5 (5-12, 15-58). 

3 See Paris, Romania, XXVIII, 214-215, 231, note i. 



298 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

which takes up w. 12,592-12,885 of Potvin's text (III, 
125-133). See the discussions of the Livre by Hugo Waitz 
{Die Fortsetzungen von Chrestiens^ Perceval le Gallois nach 
den Pariser Handschriften, Strassburg, 1890, pp. 47 ff.) and 
Miss Weston (The Legend of Sir Perceval, 1, 309 ff.). The 
Book of Caradoc (Karados Buoch) forms a portion of the 
Parzival of Claus Wisse and Philipp Colin (1331-1336), 
w. 197 1 ff., ed. Schorbach, cols. 45 ff. The translation of 
the adventure of the Challenge (w. 2 13 1-2467, cols. 49-56) 
gives us no help in our study. For the Livre in the prose 
Perceval, see pp. 31-32, above. 

On the Livre, as a whole or in part, see Madden, Syr 
Gawayne pp. 305-306; Hein»zel, Ueber die franzosischen 
Gralromane, Vienna Denkschriften, 1892, p. 32; Miss 
Thomas, Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, pp. 34 ff . ; 
Warnatsch, Der Mantel, pp. 62 ff.; Child, The English and 
Scottish Popular Ballads, I, 257 ff.; Miss Weston, The 
Legend of Sir Perceval, I, 309 ff . ; Miss Harper, Modern 
Language Notes, XIII, 209 ff . ; Paris, Romania, XXVIII, 
214 ff.; Lot, Romania, XXVIII, 568 ff.; Rhys, Celtic 
Folklore, II, 689-690; Nitze, The Old French Grail Romance 
Perlesvaus, p. 68; Kittredge, [Harvard] Studies and Notes, 
VIII, 208, note i; Friedwagner, La Vengeance Raguidel, 
pp. ckxix ff. 

VI. La Mule sanz Frain 

La Mule sanz Frain (or La Demoiselle a la Mure) is in the 
same Bern MS. that contains Le Chevalier a VEpee. The 
author names himself in v. 14: " dist Paiens de Maiseres.^* 
The poem has been edited by Meon, Nouveau Recueil de 
Fabliaux et Contes, 1823, I, 1-37; by R. T. Hill, La Mule 
sanz Frain, Baltimore, 191 1 (Yale dissertation); and by 
Boleslas Orlowski, La Demoiselle a la Mule, Paris, 191 1. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 299 

For discussions, see A. Duval, Histoire Litteraire de la 
France, XIX, 722-729; G. Paris, the same, XXX, 68-69; 
A. C. L. Brown, Twain, [Harvard] Studies and Notes, 1903, 
VIII, 80 if. ; the same. The Knight of the Lion, Publications 
of the Modern Language Association, 1905, XX, 692 fif.; 
Hill's review of Borlowski, Romanic Review, IV, 392-395; 
Roques's review of Hill and Borlowski, Romania, XL, 144- 
147. Both Hill and Roques reject the strange theories of 
Orlowski as to the relations among Chretien, Paien, and 
Heinrich von dem Tiirlin. Hill very properly remarks that 
" the conclusion reached by Orlowski is made contrary to 
his own evidence." See pp. 252 ff., above. 

Diu Crone, a Middle High German romance of the Round 
Table, by Heinrich von dem Tiirlin, is edited from two 
manuscripts by G. H. F. Scholl, Stuttgart, 1852 (Bibliothek 
des Litterarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, XXVII). It extends 
to a little more than thirty thousand verses and is supposed 
to date from about 1220 or ealier. Heinrich inseirts La Mule 
sanz Frain with variations of his own (w. 12627 fif., pp. 
155 fif.); see pp. 251 fif., above. He also has the adventure 
of the Perilous Bed (w. 8504-8616) apparently imitated 
from Le Chevalier a VEpee (see p. 303, below), and again 
in another form in vv. 20598 fif. On his method and sources, 
see particularly Warnatsch, Der Mantel (Breslau, 1883), 
pp. 118 fif. 

VII. Perlesvaus 

Perlesvaus, an Old French romance in prose, is edited by 
Potvin only {Perceval li Gallois, I, Mons. 1866), but printed 
texts occur in incunabula. It must have been finished 
before 121 2, probably about 1200. There is a Welsh trans- 
lation among the Hengwrt MSS., which was published, 
with an English rendering, by the Rev. Robert Williams in 



300 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

1876 {Selections from the Hengwrt MSS., Vol. I, Y Seint 
Great, pp. 171-433, 547-720). Potvin's text has been trans- 
lated into English by Sebastian Evans {The High History of 
the Holy Graal, London, 1898). For further particulars see 
Nitze, The Old French Grail Romance Perlesvaus, a Study of 
its Principal Sources, Baltimore, 1902 (Johns Hopkins 
dissertation). He treats the Challenge (or Beheading 
Game) briefly on pp. 66-68. 

The episode of the Challenge is to be found in Potvin, I, 
102-104, 231-234, and the coming danger is mentioned in 
the interval (I, 196-197); cf. Evans, I, 164-167; II, 23-24, 
78-83. For the Welsh see Roberts, chaps. 139 (pp. 259-260, 
605-606), 189 (pp. 327, 649-650), 199-201 (pp. 347-350. 
663-665). 

There is no certain evidence that the author of Perlesvaus 
was acquainted with that continuation of Chretien's Per- 
ceval (the so-called Psuedo-Wauchier) that contains the 
Livre de Caradoc. Nitze thinks he shows such a knowledge 
in certain episodes, but on insufficient grounds {The Old 
French Grail Romance Perlesvaus, 1902, pp. 66-73). ^^^j 
even if Nitze's arguments are accepted, they do not carry 
with them the consequence that the author of Perlesvaus 
knew the Livre de Caradoc, which is certainly intrusive in 
the Psuedo-Wauchier; and Nitze himself has no thought 
of deriving the Challenge in Perlesvaus from the Livre (pp. 
66-67). 

VIII. HUMBAUT 

HuMBAUT (or Hunbaut) is an unfinished French romance 
found only in the Chantilly MS. of Arthurian pieces (the 
same that contains Rigomer and Li Biaus Desconeus), which 
was written in the second half of the thirteenth century. 
The romance is very briefly summarized and discussed by 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 301 

Gaston Paris (Histoire LiUeraire, XXX, 69-71, 75-76), who 
calls attention to its resemblance in one episode to The Carl 
of Carlisle and Le Chevalier a VEpee, and in another to Gawain 
and the Green Knight. It is edited (under the title of Hun- 
haut) by J. Sturzinger and H. Breuer as Vol. XXXV of the 
publications of the Gesellschaft flir Romanische Literatur 
(Dresden, 1914). The romance may be safely referred to 
the first quarter of the thirteenth century. It contains both 
the Challenge and an episode resembling the Temptation 
(see pp. 61 if., 99 ff., above). 

IX. The Carl of Carlisle 

There are two texts of The Carl of Carlisle: (A) Syre 
Gawene and the Carle of Carelyle, Porkington MS. No. 10, 
fols. 12-27, edited by Madden, Syr Gawayne, pp. 188-206; 
(B) Carle of Carlile, Percy MS., pp. 448-455, noticed by 
Percy, Reliques, 1765, III, xx; edited by Madden, pp. 256- 
274; by Child, English and Scottish Ballads, I, 58-79 (1857) ; 
and by Hales and Furnivall, Bishop Percys Folio Manu- 
script, III, 275-294. There are two copies of B (made for 
Percy and one containing some notes in his hand) among the 
Percy Papers in the Harvard College Library. A is in tail- 
rhyme stanzas of six verses and runs to 660 lines; B is in 
irregular short couplets and runs to 500 lines. The Porking- 
ton MS. is put by Madden at the close of the reign of Henry 
VI (d. 1471); ^ the Percy MS. was written about 1650. A 
and B are two texts of the same poem. A, however, is not 
from B,2 for the conclusion is better preserved in B than in 
A. Probably B is to be regarded as a poor copy of a poem in 

^ Syr Gawayne, p. 344. 

2 Madden thought that A was "the original from which the modernised 
copy in the Percy MS. was taken" (pp. 344-345). 



302 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

couplets, and A is a working over of this same poem into the 
tail-rhyme form. In the main (except for the conclusion) A 
affords a better text than B. The Carl of Carlisle is cer- 
tainly derived from the French, but not (as Madden 
thought) ^ from Le Chevalier a VEpee. The Carl and the 
Chevalier go back independently to a common French 
source, which is lost, and the Carl preserves the story much 
better than the Chevalier. 

That The Carl of Carlisle preserves a much more correct 
version of the story than the Chevalier a VEpee is the opinion 
of Paris, emphatically stated in Histoire Litteraire, XXX, 
68. Paris also comments on the beheading for disenchant- 
ment at the end of the Percy MS. version of the Carl (which 
he calls a ballad) : — '' II est remarquable qu'on y trouve un 
denouement qui doit etre primitif et qui ne figure pas dans 
le poeme [i.e., the Porkington MS. version]. Comme ce 
denouement a un caractere tres fantastique, on pent croire 
qu'un copiste Fa trouve absurde et I'a supprime; la fin du 
poeme anglais, dans la manuscrit unique qui Fa conserve, 
presente quelque chose de gauche qui rende une mutilation 
assez vraisemblable." ^ 

X. Le Chevalier a l'Epee 

Le Chevalier a VEpee (Espee) is contained in an MS. of the 
fourteenth century in the Bern Municipal Library (Bib- 
liotheca Bongarsiana, No. 354). The poem belongs to the 
first quarter of the thirteenth. It has been published by 
Meon, Nouveau Recueil de Fabliaux et C antes, 1823, 1, i27ff.; 
by Legrand d'Aussy, Fabliaux ou Contes, 3d ed., 1829, I, 
Appendix, pp. 3 ff.; by Jonckbloet, Roman van Walewein, 
Part II, 1848, pp. 35-74; and by E. C. Armstrong, Le 

^ P. 345. 2 cf also Romania, XXIX, 597, and note i. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 303 

Chevalier d, r£pee, Baltimore, 1900 (Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity dissertation). Armstrong's edition contains much 
valuable material besides the text; cf. the review by Paris, 
Romania, XXIX, 593 ff. The poem is also examined by 
A. Duval, Histoire Litteraire, XIX, 704 ff.; by Paris, the 
same, XXX, 67-68; and by Friedwagner, La Vengeance 
Raguidel, 1909, pp. clxxxv ff. Madden regarded it as the 
source of the Carl of Carlisle in the Porkington MS.^ 

It consists of two stories: (i) the Temptation (w. i- 
859), in which Gawain wins an amie, and (2) an anecdote 
contrasting the fidelity of dogs with the faithlessness of 
women, in which she deserts him (w. 860-1206). The 
Perilous Bed, which occurs in the first part (w. 534 ff.), is 
found twice in Chretien — in his Perceval ^ and his Chevalier 
de la Charrette.^ Since the author of Le Chevalier d, V£.pee 
mentions Chretien with approval in his prefatory lines,'* he 
doubtless borrowed the contrivance from him.^ Compari- 
son shows that he was indebted rather to the Charrette than 
to the Perceval,^ but the use to which he puts the machine 
(to guard chastity) is his own invention.^ In the Perceval 
the weapons that assail Gawain when he sits on the " lit de 
la merveille" are darts and arrows; in the Charrette, it is a 
lance with a burning pennon that grazes Lancelot. The 
substitution of a sword by the author of Le Chevalier d, 
VEpee I have explained by conjecturing that in his original 



^ Syr Gawayne, p. 345. 

2 Vv. 9054-9222 (Potvin, II, 302-306; III, 1-2). 



3 Vv. 463-538, ed. Foerster, pp. 19-21. 

* Vv. 17-22. 

^ For other versions, see Armstrong, pp. 59-62. 

* Armstrong, pp. 60-62. 

' For the imitation of the Chevalier in this point by Heinrich von dem 
Tiirlln (Crdne, vv. 8504-8616), see p. 253. Paris, Romania, XXIX, 597, 
thinks that Heinrich did not get the incident from the Chevalier, and Fried- 
wagner agrees with him {Vengeance Raguidel, p. clxxxix). 



304 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Gawain laid his own sword between his host's wife and him- 
self (p. 92). 

The anecdote of the contrasted fidelity of dogs and women 
occurs in variant forms in the Chevalier a VEpee^ the 
Vengeance Raguidel^ the prose Tristan,^ and the Dutch 
Lancelot.^ It has been studied by Paris, Histoire Litteraire, 
XXX, 60 if. (cf. Romania, XXIX, 598-599), by E. C. Arm- 
strong, Le Chevalier a VEpee, pp. 63-67, and by Friedwagner, 
La Vengeance Raguidel, pp. clxxxv ff. Cf. Kittredge, 
Arthur and Gorlagon, [Harvard] Studies and Notes in Philol- 
ogy and Literature, VIII, 245-254. G. Doncieux {Revue des 
Traditions Populaires, VIII, 513 ff.) prints a modern French 
poem. La Mattresse Volage et le Chien Fidele, which he thinks 
was composed on the basis of the summary of the Chevalier 
a VEpee given by Legrand d'Aussy in 1779 in his Fabliaux 
ou ConteSj I, 34 £f. 

XI. The Canzoni 

The anonymous Italian poem is edited, with a study of its 
literary relations, by Rajna, Zeitschrift filr romanische 
Philologie, 1, 381 ff. The present investigation shows that 
Rajna's combinations will not hold in some particulars. 
Pucci's poem was printed (from VEtruria, Studi di Filologia, 
anno secondo, Florence, 1852, pp. 124 ff.) by Carducci, Rime 
di M. Cino da Pistoia e d'Altri del Seccolo XIV, Florence, 
1862, pp. 460-463, and from Carducci's edition by Wesselof- 
sky, Rivista di Filologia Romanza, II, (1875), 221 fif.^ Wes- 
selofsky (p. 225) says that it is impossible to decide whether 

^ Vv. 861-1191 (the poem ends with v, 1206). 

2 Ed. Hippeau, vv. 4446-4861, pp. 154-168; Friedwagner, vv. 44522. 
' Loseth, pp. 128-130. 

^ Vv. 13055-13 180, ed. Jonckbloet, II, 89-90. 

^ It it also published by Ferri, La Poesia Popolare in Antonio Pucci, Bo- 
logna, 1909, pp. 217-219. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 305 

Pucci's source was the Chevalier a VEpee or some French 
fabliau more similar to Pucci's own poem. Cf. Paris, His- 
toire Litter aire, XXX, 68, and see especially E. C. Arm- 
strong, Le Chevalier a VEpee, Baltimore, 1900, pp. 67-68. 
Rajna, Armstrong, and Paris {Romania, XXIX, 597) all 
agree in ascribing both canzoni to Pucci, but comparison 
with the Carl of Carlisle and Le Chevalier a VEpee makes it 
probable that they are from different hands (see pp. 93 ff . 
above). 

XII. The Exempla 

There are two versions of the Latin Exemplum of The 
Three Knights and the Three Inns: (A) in a collection of 
stories in a manuscript written in Italy in the sixteenth 
century (Harleian MS. 3938, fol. 121, British Museum), 
printed on pp. 96-97, above; (see Herbert, Catalogue 0} 
Romances, III, 710) ; (B) in a treatise by Etienne de Bour- 
bon (who died about 1261) known as Liber de Septum Bonis 
Spiritus Sancti or Tractatus de Diversis Materiis Praedicabi- 
libus, from which it is printed by Lecoy de la Marche, 
Anecdotes Historiques . . . tires du Recueil Inedit d' Etienne 
de Bourbon, p. 17 (see p. 97, above). Other texts of B occur 
in additional MSS. 16589 (late 13th century), fol. 88, col. 2, 
and 24641 (first half of 14th century), fol. 210, and there is a 
part of the story in Sloane MS. 3102 (15th century), fol. 7v°: 
see Herbert, Catalogue of Romances, III, 468, 536, 93. These 
three pieces are printed on pp. 272-273, above. 

XIII. Rauf Coilyear 

The Taill of Rauf Coilyear was printed at St. Andrews by 
Robert Lekpreuik in 1572 (unique copy in the Advocates' 
Library, Edinburgh). There is no manuscript extant. The 
poem has been edited by David Laing, Select Remains of the 



3o6 GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 

Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1822 
(reprinted 1884); the same, reedited by John Small, 1885; 
by W. Carew Hazlitt, Early Popular Poetry of Scotland, I, 
212-249; by S. J. Herrtage, English Charlemagne Romances, 
Part VI (Early English Text Society), 1882; by F. J. 
Amours, Scottish Alliterative Poems, pp. 82-114 (Scottish 
Text Society); (5) by M. Tonndorf, Berlin, 1894; (6) by 
William Hand Browne, Baltimore, 1903. For similar stories 
(without the lesson in courtesy), see Child, Ballads, III, 55, 
74-76, 220 ff.; V, 67-87, 303; W. H. Clawson, The Gest of 
Robin Hood {University of Toronto Studies, 1909), pp. 102 ff. 
A curious parallel to the contention in courtesy (but without 
the violence of Rauf's lesson) is quoted by Clawson (p. 109, 
note 2) from Andrew Small's Interesting Roman Antiquities 
recently discovered in Fife, Edinburgh, 1823, pp. 278-279. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



[Bibl. refers to the Bibliographical Note, pp. 290 S.] 



Aalardin, 226 S. 

Adler, 280. 

Adventures of the Children of the 
King of Norway, 155. 

Adventures of the Son of Bad 
Counsel, 265. 

Aed, St., 165 f. 

Agnarr, 21. 

Agostes, 125 ff., 134 flf. 

Albertus Magnus, 185. 

Alexander romance, Nectanabus in, 
27, 230. 

Alphonsus Emperor of Germany, 
Chapman's, 22, 222. 

Alternate blows or shots in single 
combat, 21 ff., 218 ff. 

Ambioris, 117. 

Amurfina, 252 f. 

Andromeda, 156. 

Anglo-Norman romance of the 
Challenge (O), 45 ff.; the source 
of La Mule and R, 45 ff.; prob- 
able source of the Perlesvaus ver- 
sion, 52 ff.; and of the Humbaut 
version, 61 ff.; reconstruction of 
O and comparison with its deriv- 
atives, 66 ff.; the feints in O, 72 f.; 
recapitulation, 74 ff.; description 
of the challenger, 140 (cf. 67). 

Animal spouse, 162 ff., 205 ff., 239. 

Animals: see Guiding, Helpful. 

Apple or venomous apple, casting the, 
i53f.,222f., 275. See Tennis-Bail. 

Apples that make horns grow, 154. 



Arabian Nights, 186. 

Arabic tales, 170, 186, 229. 

Ardh 6 Leabharcha, 149 f . 

Ariosto, 157. 

Aristotle on speaking heads, 177. 

Armenian tales, 208 f., 217. 

Art and Balor Beimenach, 207. 

Arthur refuses to eat without an 
adventure, 5, 27, 37, 39, 67; 
transfers adventure to Gawain, 5, 
15, 33, 39, 69; interrupts the 
challenger, 30, 35, 40 f., 58, 71, 73; 
recruiting of his knights from con- 
quered opponents or unspelled 
persons, 83, 88 f., 105 f., 116 ff., 
120, 122 ff., 130, 135, 260 f., 270 f. 

Arthurian cycle, attachment of 
stories to, 25 ff., 83, 121 f., 137 f., 
228 ff., 231 ff., 250 f., 271, 274 ff., 
280 f. 

Artificial heads, 184 f. 

Asiatic (Northeast) tales 162 ff., 190. 

Asuangs, 160. 

Aude, St., 177. 

Auntyrs of Arthur, 270. 

Australian custom and folk-lore, 22, 
140, 147, 174, 218; method of 
duelling, 22, 218; demon of the 
bush, 22, 147. 

Aztec tale. 160. 



Bacon, Roger, 184. 
Ball that guides, 
Tennis-ball. 



170. See also 



309 



3IO 



INDEX 



Ballads: Robin and Gandeleyn, 21, 
220; The Broomfield Hill, 105, 
263; Halewijn, 157 f-, 165, 266; 
Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, 
157; Kvindemorderen, 157; Lady- 
Diamond, 164; Kemp Owyne, 
165; A Gest of Robyn Hode, 22, 
221; Hr. Hylleland henter sin 
Jomfru, 258f.; Kappen Illhugin, 
258 f.; King John and the Bishop, 
259; The Marriage of Sir Gawain, 
2695., 277; King Estmere, 280; 
The Queen of Scotland, 281. 

Balor, 169, 207. 

Barbauvert, 155. 

Bare-stripping Hangman, 152, 208, 
279 f. 

Basque folk-lore, 265. 

Battle of the Birds, 196. 

Bear lover, 162 ff. 

Beauty of the World, 278; and the 
Beast, 215. 

Bed: see Perilous Bed. 

Beheading: see Decapitation. 

Beheading game: see Challenge. 

Beithis, 192. 

Bendigeit Vran, 179 f. 

Benedict of Peterborough, 185. 

Berach, St., 149. 

Berchorius: see Bersuire. 

Berfuire: see Bersuire. 

Bernlak de Hautdesert: see Green 
Knight. 

Bersuire, Pierre, 180 f. 

Beuno, St., 167. 

Bhuts, 196. 

Biaus: see Li Biaus. 

Biaus Mauvais, Li, 117. 

Biche Blanche, 232. 

Bioultach, 195, 279. 

Bird, woman in shape of, 213. 

Birth of Finn, 171. 

Bjarki, 21. 



Black Dog of the Wild Forest, 

202. 
Black Knight, 141. 
Bldkdpa, 260. 
Block, II, 14, 24, 31 f-, 35, 40 f-, 43, 

45,68ff. 
Blood, occult qualities of, 158, 171; 

drawn, reverses spell, 212 ff. 
Blows, harmless: see Feints. 
Blue Kjiight, 141. 
Bluebeard, 207, 215. 
Bocaw More, 279. 
Boccaccio: see Decameron. 
Bodin, Jean, on heads in necrom- 
ancy, 182 f. 
Bojardo, 186. 

Book of Caradoc, 224 ff.: see Livre. 
Book of Hy-Many, 166. 
Book of Leinster, 176. 
Book of the Dun Cow: see Lebor na 

hUidre. 
Boon, unknown, granted, 11. 
Bourbon: see fitienne. 
Bran, head of, 179 f. 
Brandubh mac Echach, 139. 
Bran wen Daughter of Llyr. 179 f. 
Brazen head, 184 f. 
Brazier, 120, 222. 
Breaking of the deer, 286. 
Bredbeddle, Sir, 125 ff. 
Breton folk-lore and legend, 155, 

172, 177, 214. 
Bricriu's Feast: see Fled Bricrend. 
Bridge to the Other World, 42, 61 f., 

243 f. 
Bridle, magic, 42 f., 248 ff., 252 f. 
Broomfield Hill, 105, 263. 
Brun de Branlant, 117. 
Brynhildr, 208. 
Buchan, Peter, 281. 
Buffets, alternate, 21 f., 119 f., 123, 

221. 
Buite, St., 166. 



INDEX 



311 



Cabestainh, 164. 

Cadmus and the dragon's teeth, 155. 

Cadoc, St., 166 f. 

Cador, 226 ff, 

Gael an lairainn, 154, 279. 

Caillin, St., 277. 

Cairbre Cromm, 166; Cathead, 171. 

Camelot, 5, 283. 

Camerarius, Joachim, on heads in 

necromancy, 183. 
Cannibal demon, 22, 160, 175, 208, 

234. See also Rakshasa. 
Cannibalistic head, 163, 188 ff. 
Canzoni, related to the Temptation 

(Bibl., XI), 93 ff., 105; editions 

and authorship of, 304 f . 
Capping verses, 276 f. 
Caradoc: see Livre. 
Caradoc and the Serpent (Bibl., V), 

226 ff., 280 f. See also Livre. 
Cardiff, 87. 
Carduel, 27. 
Carl of Carlisle (Bibl., IX), 85 ff., 

95 ff., loi ff., no ff., 117, 122, 152, 

200 ff., 207 ff., 217, 257 ff. 
Carlion, 226. 

Carlisle, 125, 283. See Carl. 
Casting the apple: see Apple. 
Castoiement d'un Pere, 103. 
Catalan folk-lore, 208, 214 f. 
Cathead, 171. 
Cats, magic or demonic, 171, 202, 205. 

See also Cairbre. 
Cauldron, 120, 223, 275. 
Cauterizing : see Chilling. 
Ceadach, 148 f., 153, 278. 
Ceudach, 148 f., 153, 278. 
Cennach ind Ruanada: see Cham- 
pion's Bargain. 
Centaurs, 195. 
Challenge by supernatural being, in 

folk-lore, 21 ff., 137 ff., 171 f-, 

196!., 218 ff., 222. 



Challenge, The, episodical romances 
of, O and R: see Anglo-Norman; 
French. 

Challenge, The, in Gawain and the 
Green Knight, 7 ff., in Irish, 9 ff.; 
in Le Livre de Caradoc, 26 ff., 224 
ff.; in the French romance R, 
38 ff., 67 ff.; in La Mule sanz 
Frain, 42 ff., 231 ff., 251 ff.; in 
Diu Cr6ne, 51 f., 252 ff.; in Perles- 
vaus, 52 ff.; in Humbaut, 61 ff.; 
in the Anglo-Norman romance O, 
66 ff . ; in the Turk and Gawain, 
118 ff., 274 ff.; in the Percy Green 
Knight, 125 ff.; combination with 
the Temptation in Gawain and 
the Green Knight, 8 f., 25, 34 ff., 
74 ff., 107 ff., 123 ff., 137 ff. 

Champion's Bargain, The (Bibl., 
I), with translation, 9ff.; its re- 
lation to Gawain and the Green 
Knight, 15 ff.; to the Uath ver- 
sion, 1 7 ff . ; early history of the 
story, 19 ff.; passage into French, 
25 f.; Le Livre de Caradoc and its 
relations to the Irish, 26 ff.; the 
Irish compared with the Caradoc 
and the Gawain, with reconstruc- 
tion of version R of the Challenge, 
38 ff . ; La Mule sanz Frain and its 
relation to the Irish story, 42 ff.; 
version O, Anglo-Norman, 46 ff. ; 
Perlesvaus and its relations to the 
Irish, 52 ff.; Humbaut and its 
position, 61 ff.; reconstruction of 
version O and comparison with the 
Irish, 66 ff . ; the feints or harmless 
blows, 72 ff.; recapitulation, 74 f. 

Champion's portion (curathmlr), 
10 ff. 

Chapman, George, 22, 222. 

Charlemagne, 102, 245. 

Charlemagne's Pilgrimage, 245. 



312 



INDEX 



Charrette, 244, 263 f. 

Chastity guarded by sword, 91, 253; 

by sleeping potion, 262; by tricks 

of magic, 265. 
Chat Botte, 202. 
Chatelain de Coucy, 164. 
Chaucer, 128, 171, 245, 268 fif., 279. 
Chess, 197. 

Chestre, Thomas, 86, 119. 
Chevalier a I'fipee, Le (Bibl., X), 86, 

89 ff., 95 ff., loi f., iioff., 122, 

262. 
Child consisting of head only, 190 f. 
Children's Death, 190. 
Chilling or cauterizing the spinal 

marrow, 148 f., 157, 159 f., 247. 
Chretien de Troyes, 241. See also 

Charrette, Erec, Ivain, Perceval. 
Ciaran, St., 166. 
Clarissant, 134. 
Cliffs that clash, 245. 
Cloud, Ixion's, 266. 
Clown in the Gray Coat, 154. 
Coirpre, 178. 
Colan gan cheann, 176. 
Companions: see Helpful, Skilful. 
Conaire Mor, 177. 
Conall, 10 ff., 169. 
Conall Gulban, 148. 
Conchobar, King of Ulster, 10. 
Congenital helpful animals, 234. 
Connla Ruad, 232. 
Constance, 128. 

Contamination of types, 234 ff. 
Contenances de la Table, 103. 
Contention in courtesy, 93 ff., loi ff., 

271 f. 
Corbet's Iter Boreale, 215. 
Cormac's Glossary, 178, 203, 275 ff. 
Corps-sans-ame, 208. 
Cotta, John, on oracular head, 183. 
Counter-spell, 240. 
Court of Conchobar, 10, 15. 



Crone: see Heinrich. 
Cuchulinn, 10 ff., 24!., 36, 40, 45, 
72 f., 150 f., 178, 213; his girdle, 

139- 
Curadh Glas, 197. 
Curathmir, 10 ff. 
Curoi mac Daire, 14, 245. 
Custom of the castle, 82 ff., 88 f., 

92 ff., 99 ff., 261. 

Da Derga: see Togail. 

Damian, Russian story, 98 f. 

Dancing women, 226. 

Danish folk-lore, 216, 258. 

Dark Island, 222. 

Daughter of giant or host favorable 
to quester, 49, 91, 100 f., 150, 155, 
196, 233, 261 ff. 

Daughter of King Underwaves, 171. 

Death of enchanted body, 200 ff. 

Death of Finn, 178. 

Decameron (iv, i), 164; (iv, 9), 164. 

Decapitation, disenchantment by, 
151 ff., 200 ff. 

Decapitation game: see Challenge. 

Decuman, St., 176. 

Dekker's Old Fortunatus, 154. 

Deloney, Thomas, 103. 

Demoisele a la Mure: see Mule sanz 
Frain. 

Demon of vegetation, 195 ff.; pos- 
sible relation to the Green Knight, 
19s ff. 

Denis, St., 176. 

Derbforgaill, 213. 

Diarmaid, 171, 204. 

Didot Perceval, 241. 

Difficult host: see Imperious. 

Dionysius, St., 176. 

Disenchantment: of waste city, 
47 ff., 55, 236 ff., 24s ff.; by per- 
forming tasks, etc., 79 ff., nsff., 
119 ff., 236 ff., 245 ff., 274 ff., by 



INDEX 



313 



obedience, 82 ff., 92; by decapi- 
tation or killing otherwise, 88 f., 
105 f., 151 ff., 200 ff., 206 ff., 26Q, 
274; by personal contact, 205 f,, 
216 f., 268 ff.; by intrepidity, 
257 ff. 

Disguise, husband as wife, 164. 

Disintegration, 189. 

Donnbo's head, 179. 

Doors that slam, 245. 

Dragon, 156 f. 

Dragon's teeth, 155. 

Dream, magic sword given in, 49. 

Dubthach, 11 f. 

Duelling by alternate blows or shots, 
21 ff., 218 ff. 

Dutch folk-lore, 156, 165. 

Eachtra mhic Miochomhairle, 265. 

Eating: in abode of supernatural 
beings, 119, 181; Arthur's custom 
as to, 5, 27, 37, 39, 67; flesh or 
blood of lover eaten, 164; eating 
the dead, 186. See also Cannibal. 

Edda, 175, 181. 

Edmund, St., 187. 

Eger and Graeme, 104. 

Egg, life in, 152, 215. 

Eliavres, 30, 225 ff. 

Eliduc, Marie's lay, 154. 

tloi, St., 168. 

Emain Macha, 10, 14. 

Enchanted Princess, type of folk- 
tale, its origin and relation to other 
types, 236 ff. 

Enchanter in folk-tales, 237 ff. See 
Disenchantment. 

English folk-lore, 206, 215 f., 220, 
250, 259. See Ballads. 

Eochaid Airem, 197. 

Epic saga of Ulster, 10 ff., 290 ff. 

Episodical romances of the Chal- 
lenge: see Anglo-Norman; French. 



Erec, 49, 104. 

Errands, treacherous, 228 f. 

Eskimo tale, 162. 

Esus, 199. 

fitienne de Bourbon, 97 f,, 271 ff. 

Etiquette, principle of deference to 

one's host, loi ff. 
Exchange of winnings, 1 13 f . 
Exempla of the Three Inns (Bibl., 

XII), 96 ff., 271 ff. 
Expedition to Other World, 232 ff. 

Faeroe tale, 156. 

Fairies steal women, 213 f. 

Fairy Mistress, type of folk-tale, 

and its relations to other types, 

231 ff. 
Fairy mounds or hills, 119, 142, 198. 

See Green Chapel. 
Fairy Palace of the Quicken Trees, 

222 f. 
Faithless Mother (Sister), folk-tale, 

27, 186, 228 ff. 
Faunus, 195. 
Fawdoun, 175. 
Fearlessness, condition of imspelling, 

257 ff. 
Feasts spread in empty halls, 119, 

181, 238. 
Fechin, St., 203, 277. 
Fee: see Fairy Mistress. 
Feints or harmless blows, 7, 14, 18, 

24 f., 29 f., 40 f., 44 f., 53, 57 ff., 

72 ff. 
Fergus mac Roich, 12. 
Fertram and Plato, 175. 
Festivities at House of Conan, 176. 
Finn, 171, 178, 277. 
Finn and Lorcan, 222 275. 
Finn and the Phantoms, 181. 
Fir fer: see Truth of men. 
FledBricrend (Bibl, I), 10 ff.; The 

Champion's Bargain, 10 ff.; the 



314 



INDEX 



Uath story in, 17 ff.; composite 
character of the Fled, 24. See 
also Champion's Bargain; Uath. 

Flowers, garland of, 37 f., 60. 

Flying heads, 189 f. 

Fly ting, 63. 

Forbidden chamber, 207. 

Ford, perilous, 82, 241. 

Fortmiatus, 154. 

Fothad, 179. 

Freezing or cauterizing the marrow, 
148 f., 157, 159 f-, 247. 

French folk-tales, 202, 208. 

French romance of the Challenge 
(R), source of that incident in the 
Caradoc and the Gawain, 37 fiF., 
140 f.; reconstruction of, 38 £f.; 
the feints in, 40 f , ; relation of La 
Mule sanz Frain to R and O, 45 f.; 
relation of R to O, 45 ff.; of Per- 
lesvaus to R, 56 ff.; reconstruction 
of version O and comparison with 
R, 66 ff.; the feints in R, 73 f.; 
recapitulation, 74 f. 

Frog Prince, 205 f., 217, 269. 

Galagandreis, 219, 262. 

Galleroun, Sir, 270. 

Game with supernatural opponent: 
see Challenge. 

Gansguoter, 243, 253 f. 

Gareth, 141, 265 f. 

Garsalas, 117. 

Gascon folk-lore, 186. 

Gask Hall, 175. 

Gaste citee: see Waste. 

Gauvain et I'Echiquier, 274, 

Gawain, hero of various poems and 
tales, 3ff., 38 ff., 42 ff., 61 ff., 
66 ff., 8s ff., 89 ff., 93 ff., 99 ff., 
118 ff., 125 ff., 180 f.; has no en- 
during liaison, 92; is loved un- 
seen, 100, 135 f. See Walewein. 



Gawain and the Green Knight, the 
English romance (Bibl., II), 3 ff.; 
its source French, 3 f.; summary 
of plot, 5 ff.; a combination of the 
Challenge and the Temptation, 
7 f.; the Challenge in Irish, 9 ff.; 
relation of the Irish to the English, 
15 ff., 24 f.; Livre de Caradoc, 
26 ff.; relations between the Cara- 
doc and the Gawain, 32 ff., 37 f.; 
their common source in French, 
version R, 37 ff.; reconstruction 
of version R, 39 ff.; La Mule sanz 
Frain and its relation to other 
versions, 42 ff.; the Anglo-Nor- 
man romance of the Challenge 
(version O), 46 ff.; Perlesvaus, 
52 ff.; its relation to the Gawain, 
57 ff.; Humbaut, 61 ff.; recon- 
struction of version O, with its 
relations to R and the Gawain, 
66 ff.; the feints or harmless blows, 

N72 ff.; changes made in the 
Gawain (French or English), 74; 
recapitulation as to the Challenge, 
74 ff.; the Temptation in the 
English and the earlier character 
of that incident, 76 ff.; a test- 
story, 76 ff.; literary versions of 
the Temptation, SsG-; Ider, 
83 ff.; The Carl of Carlisle, S5 ff.; 
Le Chevalier a V'£,p6e, Sg Q.; the 
canzoni, 93 ff.; the exempla, 96 ff.; 
Humbaut, 98 ff . ; version of the 
Temptation used in the French 
Gawain, 104 ff.; combination of 
the Challenge and the Tempta- 
tion, 107 ff.; the wamer, iiof.; 
the disenchantment theme, 115 f.; 
denouement in the French Ga- 
wain, 116 ff.; changed by English 
poet, 118; The Turk and Gawain, 
118 ff.; its relation to Gawain and 



INDEX 



3IS 



the Green Knight, 122 ff.; the 
Percy Green Knight, 1253.; its 
relation to the long romance, 127 
ff.; relation of the long English 
romance to its French source, 
128 ff.; Percy Green Knight not 
from the French, 130 ff.; assimi- 
lation of the French poem to a 
marchen type 137 f.; the green 
lace, 139 f.; the color of the Green 
Knight, 140 ff., 195 ff.; the Green 
Chapel, 142; conclusion, 142!. 

Gerbert: see Silvester. 

German folk-lore, 156, i95,2ioff.,25o. 

Gest of Robin Hood, 22, 221. 

Gh^zi Miyan, 170. 

Ghost, the, and his Wives, 172. 

Giant's Daughter, type of folk-tale, 
and its relations to other types, 
232 ff., 263. See Daughter. 

Giants in Isle of Man, 120. 

Gifted companions: see Skilful. 

Gilolo, 161. 

Giraldus Cambrensis, 154, 179, 213. 

Golden Fleece, 233. 

Gower, 128, 185. 

Graelent, lay of, 231. 

Grateful dead man, 172, 210, 278 f. 

Greek folk-lore, 157, 184, 266. 

Green arms of Sir Raynbrown and 
Sir Ironside, 87. 

Green Chapel, 5 ff., 142. 

Green clothing, 31, 37, 39, 46, 67, 

87, 141. 195 ff- 
Green color of wood deities, etc., 

19s ff. 

Green Daughter of the Green King, 
196. 

Green dogs, 202. 

Green Knight, Bernlak de Haut- 
desert, 5 ff., and passim. 

Green Knight in the Gareth adven- 
ture in Malory, 141. 



Green Knight, The, in the Percy 
MS. (Bibl., Ill) and its relation to 
Gawain and the Green Knight, 
122 ff.; parallel passages, 282 ff. 

Green Knight of Knowledge, 197. 

Green lace, 6 f,, 139 f. 

Green Man of No Man's Land, 
196 f. 

Green men, etc., in folk-tales and 
ceremonies, 19s ff., 198 f., 278 f. 

Green Mound, 198. 

Greene, Robert, 185. 

Greenness of the challenger, 5, 67, 
140 ff., 195 ff. 

Gridiron, casting the, 222. 

Grmding of axe, 6, 57 f. (cf. 53), 288. 

Gromer, Gromer Somer, etc., 120, 
270 f. 

Grosteste, Robert, 185. 

Grummore Grummersum, 270 f. 

Guiding animals, 42 f., 231 f., 234 f., 
237 f,, 243 ff., 249 f.; confused 
with helpful animals, 234 ff., 237, 
249 ff. See also Helpful. 

Guillem de Cabestainh, 164. 

Guimer, 226 ff. 

Guinevere and Morgan the Fay, 
132 ff. 

Guingamor, lay of, 232. 

Guiromelant, 117. 

Guiscardo and Ghismonda, 164. 

Gunnlaugs Saga, 218. 

Guortemir, 180. 

Halewijn, 157 f., 165, 266. 

Hamilton Tighe, 174. 

Harmless blows: see Feints. 

Harranians, 181. 

Hautdesert, Bernlak de: see Green 

Knight. 
Head, being that is only a, 188 ff. 
Head cut off to disenchant, 151 ff., 

200 ff. 



3i6 



INDEX 



Head laid aside or removed by magi- 
cian, i6i. 

Head leaves the body and goes on 
excursion, i6o f . 

Head prevented from rejoining body, 
49, 62 ff., 148 ff., 156 ff., 159 ff., 
247. 

Head, pursuing, 162 ff., 188 £f. 

Head returns to shoulders, speaks, 
or acts, or is carried by trunk, or 
reimited by magic or miracle. See 
Returning or Surviving Head. 

Head twisted or reversed, 154, 166, 
168. 

Head-carrying saints, 176 f. 

Headless Horseman, 174 f. 

Headless revenant, 175. 

Headless Trunk (Colan gan cheann), 
176. 

Headless warriors, 175. 

Heads, artificial speaking, 184 f. 

Heads on stakes, 219, 246, 254. 

Heads, oracular, 181 ff. 

Heads, speaking, 177 ff. 

Heads, tutelary, 180. 

Heart eaten, 164. 

Heinrich von dem Ttirlin, La Mule 
in his Crone, 51 f., 243, 251 ff., 299, 

303- 

Helpful animals, disenchanted by 
decapitation, 200 ff., or otherwise 
(by skinning, etc.), 214 ff., 249 ff.; 
in The Faithless Mother, 228 f.; 
in tales of various types, 233 ff.; 
nature and origin, 234 f.; con- 
fused with guiding animals, 234 
ff., 237, 249 ff.; under spells, 237 
(cf. 200 ff., 214 ff., 249 ff.). See 
also Guiding. 

Helpful companion or attendant, 
99 ff., 119 ff., 274 ff., 281; ugly or 
deformed, 119 ff., 203 ff., 2745.; 
disenchanted by decapitation or 



otherwise, 119 ff., 203 ff., 2742. 
See also Skilful. 

Hercules and the hydra, 157. 

Herdsman in Ivain, 256. 

Hermaphrodite, 184. 

Heroic saga of Ireland, 10 ff., 290 ff. 

Herrepeer, 202. 

Herzmare, 164. 

Higden, 187. 

Hill or mound, fairy, 119, 142, 198. 
See Green Chapel. 

Hippolytus, 78. 

Holly, 37, 61. 

Holmgang, 21, 218. 

Horn, magic, 132, 227 f. 

Horns, produced by apples, 154. 

Horse, enchanted, 200 f. 

Hospitality granted by castellan 
only, 82; savage ideal of, 267. 

Host : see Imperious. 

House of Fame, 245. 

Hr. HyUeland, 258 f . 

Hue de Rotelonde, 128. 

Humbaut (Bibl., VIII), the Chal- 
lenge in, summarized, 61 ff.; com- 
pared with La Mule sanz Frain, 

63 ff . ; source, 64 f . ; denouement, 

64 ff.; the Temptation in, 99 ff.; 
story of a helpful companion, 
281. 

Hung-up-Naked, 150 f. 
Hunting scenes, 4, 130 f., 286 f. 
Hydra, 156 f. 
Hyldeland, 258 f. 

Icelandic folk-lore, 175, 257 ff., 265. 
Ider, the Temptation in, 83 ff., 106. 
Ignaure, lay, 164. 
lie d'Or, 247, 264. 
Illugi, Saga of, 257 ff. 
Illusions of enchantment, 238 f. 
Imperious host, 82 f., 87 ff., 90 ff., 
93 ff., 99 ff., lOI ff. 



INDEX 



317 



Indian folk-lore, 4gi., 158, 170, 174 f. 

See Katha-sarit-sagara, Panjatan- 

tra. 
Indivarasena, 49 f., 158. 
Ingoldsby Legends, 174. 
Intrepidity, disenchantment by, 

257 ff. 
Inviting the dead, 172. 
lolaus, 157. 
Ipomedon, 128. 
Irish and Scottish tales, 9 ff., 139, 

148 ff., 169 ff., 175 ff., 192, 195 ff., 

200 ff., 203 f., 206 f., 211, 214, 

222 f., 250, 265, 275 ff. 
Irish versions of the Challenge, 9 ff. 

See Champion's Bargain; Uath. 
Ironside, Sir, 87. 
Isaune or Isave, 225 ff. 
Italian folk-lore, 184. 
Ivain, 104, 244, 252, 256. 
Ivenant, 83 ff. 
Ixion and Hera, 266. 

Januarius, St., 176. 

Japanese saga of Yorimitsu, 173. 

Jason and Medea, 262. 

Jeu parti in La Mule, 43, 56, 60, 62, 
65, 254ff.; in Heinrich von dem 
Tiirlin, 51 f., 254 f.; in Perlesvaus, 
52, 56, 60; in Humbaut, 56, 62 f.; 
in version O, 68. 

Joannes Malalas, 186. 

Joie de la Cort, 49. 

J6msvlkinga Saga, 193. 

Kappen Illhugin, 258 f. 
Katha-sarit-sagara, 49 f., 155, 158, 

197, 211. 
Kay, 27 ff., 87 ff. 
Kemp Owyne, 165. 
Kil Arthur, 170 f. 
King and Physician, The, in Arabian 

Nights, 186. 



King Estmere, 280. 

King exempted from challenge, 12, 

IS, 33- 
King John and the Bishop, 259. 
King Lear, 107. 
King of Albainn, 275 f. 
King of Ireland's Son, 278 f. 
King of the Isles, 61 ff., 99, 281. 
King Underwaves, 171, 279. 
Kissing, 210, 268. 
KJaufi, 175. 

Knife-thr(5wing, 218 ff., 260, 262. 
Knight of the Full Axe, 277 f. 
Knight of the Green Vesture, 197 f. 
Knight of the Red Shield, 148. 
Kong Lindorm, 165. 
Kormaks Saga, 218. 
Koshchei the Deathless, 208. 
Kulhwch and Olwen, warning in, 

104, 267. 
Kvindemorderen, Danish ballad, 

157- 

Lace or girdle, protective talisman, 
6 f., 139 f. 

Lad of the Ferule, 155. 

Lad with the Skin Coverings, 149, 
278. 

Lady Diamond, 164. 

Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, 157. 

Lady that loved a monster, 149, 279. 

Lady who wooes, 78 ff. 

Lamb well, 127. 

Lamia, 238. 

Lancelot, hero of the Challenge in 
Perlesvaus, 52 ff.; and the knife- 
thrower (Galagandreis), 219 f., 
262; and the fee in the Charrette, 
263 ff. 

Lanval, Lai de, Marie's, and English 
versions, 86, 119, 231. 

Lanzelet, 219 f. 

Lapp tale, 208. 



3i8 



INDEX 



Launfal: see Lanval. 

Laurin, 139. 

Lebor na hUidre (Bibl., I), lofiF., 17!. 

Legends: see Miracles. 

Lending wives, 267. 

Leper, 277. 

Lernaean hydra, 156 f. 

Lettish epic, 201. 

Li Biaus Desconeus, 48 f., 55, 165, 
247, 262, 264. 

Le Bfaus Mauvais, 117. 

Li Riche Sodoier, 117. 

Lilith, 238, 267. 

Lit perilleux, 91 f., 134, 253, 256, 303. 

Lithuanian folk-lore, 201, 213. 

Livre de Caradoc, Le (Bibl., V), in- 
serted in Perceval, 26; the Chal- 
lenge in, 26 ff.; comparison with 
the Irish and with Gawain and the 
Green Knight, 32 ff.; common 
French source (R) of the Caradoc 
and Gawain versions, 37 ff.; re- 
construction of R and comparison 
with the Caradoc, 39 ff.; analysis 
of the version in La Mule and 
comparison with the Caradoc, etc.. 
42 ff.; Perlesvaus version ana- 
lyzed and compared, 52 ff.; Anglo- 
Norman O reconstructed and 
compared with the Caradoc, etc., 
66 ff.; the feints in Caradoc, 72 ff.; 
recapitulation, 74 f.; plot of Le 
Livre, 224 ff. 

Loathly lady, 117, 276 ff. 

Loch, 17 f., 21. 

Loegaire the Triumphant, 10 ff. 

Lomna Druth, 178. 

Lorcdn, 222, 275. 

Love without sight, 100, 135 f. 

Lover served up to wife as food, 164. 

Lustful demons, 238, 267. 

Lynet, 158, 165, 265 f. 

Lyones, Dame, 141, 265 f. 



Mabinogion, 104, 179 f., 260 ff., 267. 

Mac Cecht, 177. 

Mac Cool, Feolan, etc., 149, 204. 

Mac Iain Direach, 203. 

Madagascar, 21, 191, 221. 

Maelmuire, 290 ff. 

Magic, conditions of, 239 f . See 
Disenchantment. 

Magic sword, 49; lace, 6 f., 139 f.; 
horn, 132, 227 f.; ointment, 157 f., 
165, 266; obstacles, 163 f., 188; 
bed and sword, 91 f., 134, 253, 
256. 

Magician: see Enchanter. 

Magician and his Pupil, The, folk- 
tale, 250. 

Magyar tales, 156, 175, 196, 216. 

Mahound, head of, 185. 

Maisieres: see Paien. 

Maitresse Volage, 304. 

Malalas, Joannes, 186. 

Malory, 141, 158, 165, 265 f., 270. 

Man, Isle of, Gawain's adventures 
in, 1 20 f . 

Mandevile, Sir John, 186. 

Man-eater: see Cannibal. 

Manners: see Etiquette. 

Manus, 148. 

Maori legend, 213. 

Marie de France: see Eliduc, Lan- 
val. 

Marriage disenchants, 268 ff. 

Marriage of Sir Gawain, 269 ff., 277. 

Marriage to animal, 205 ff. 

Maui, 213. 

Medusa head, 185 f. 

Melusine, 165. 

Merlin and Morgan the Fay, 132 f. 

Mermaids, 232. 

Mesgegra, 169, 193. 

Messenger of f6e, 231 f. See Guid- 
ing. 

Midir, 197. 



INDEX 



319 



Mfmir, 181. 

Miracles with heads, 165 ff., 187 f. 

Modena Perceval, 241. 

Moluccas, 161. 

Morgan the Fay, 131 ff. 

Mort Darthur: see Malory. 

Mound: see Fairy Mounds, Green 
Chapel. 

Mourning disturbs dead, 174. 

Mule sanz Frain, La (Bibl., VI), the 
Challenge in, 42 ff.; compared 
with other versions, 44 ff . ; source 
in Anglo-Norman O, 45 ff.; rela- 
tion to Uath version, 47 f . ; reason 
for insertion of the Challenge, 
48 ff.; La Mule and Heinrich von 
dem Ttirlln, 51 f.; the Challenge 
in Perlesvaus summarized and 
compared with La Mule, 52 ff.; 
relation of Perlesvaus and La Mule 
through version O, 57 ff.; Hum- 
baut and its relation to La Mule, 
61 ff.; version O reconstructed 
and compared with La Mule, 
66 ff.; the feints in La Mule, etc., 
72; recapitulation, 74 f. ; study of 
the plot and of the types of mar- 
chen concerned, 231 ff.; La Mule 
and Chretien, 244. 

Munremar, 12 f. 

Ndukis, 173. 

Neck, stretching the, to fit block: 

see Block. 
Necromancy, with heads, 182 f. 
Nectanabus, 27, 230. 
Needrishu Widwuds, 201. 
Niniane, 133. 
Noon-lady, 147, 198. 
North American Indians, 159 ff., 

173, 188 ff., 208, 250. 
Norwegian folk-lore, 201 f., 258 f. 
Noyale, St., 177. 



O, lost Anglo-Norman romance of 
the Challenge: see Anglo-Nor- 
man. 

Obedience to one's host, 82 f., 87 ff., 
90 ff., 93 ff., 99 ff., loi ff., 272. 

Obstacles, magic, 163 f., 188. 

Octavian, 128. 

Odin and the mowers, 155. 

Ogres: see Cannibal, Rakshasas. 

Ointment to enable head and body 
to join, 157 f., 165, 266. 

Old King and Three Sons, 203. 

Ophidians: see Snake-men. 

Oracular heads, 181 ff. 

Order of the Garter, 296. 

O'Reilly, Brian Dhu, 265. 

Orlando Furioso, 157. 

Orlando Innamorato, 186. 

Orpheus and Eurydice, 213. 

Orpheus, head of, 184. 

Orrilo, 157. 

Osgar, 277. 

Osith, St., 176. 

Other World, surrogates for, 77. 
See Fairy Mistress, Tests. 

Paien de Maisieres: see Mule sanz 
Frain. 

Pangatantra, 236. 

Papua, 159, 174. 

Pentecost, high court at, 27. 

Perceval li Gallois, 26, 117, 133 f., 
241, 256. See Livre de Caradoc. 

Percy Folio MS., 85 f., 118 f., 122 ff., 
125 f., 280, 282 ff., 296 f., 301 f. 

Peredur, 260 ff., 275. 

Perilous bed, 91 f., 134, 253, 256, 303. 

Perilous Ford, 82, 241. 

Perlesvaus (Bibl., VII), the Chal- 
lenge in, 52 ff.; compared with 
other versions, 54 ff.; source in 
version O, 57; special resem- 
blances to Gawain and the Green 



320 



INDEX 



Knight, 57 ff.; doubtful position 
of the Perlesvaus version, 60 f.; 
version O reconstructed and com- 
pared with Perlesvaus, 66 iff. ; the 
feints, 72 f.; recapitulation, 74 f. 

Perlesvaus, Welsh translation of, 54. 

Perrault, 202. 

Perseus and Medusa, 186. 

Personal contact, disenchantment 
by 205 f., 216 f., 268 ff. 

Phaedra, 78. 

Philippines, 21, 160, 190, 220. 

Phlegon's Mirabilia, 184. 

Pilgrimage of Charlemagne, 245. 

Pinza on heads, 187. 

Pledge of fair play in Irish saga, 11 f. 

Pluck-buffet, 21 f., 119 f,, 123, 221. 

Poets, contest of, 276 f. 

Polycritus, 184. 

Popol Vuh, 186, 190. 

Portuguese tale, 158. 

Potiphar's wife, 78. 

Princess who loved a monster, 149, 
279; enchanted, 236 ff. 

Proculus, St., 176. 

Pseudo-Wauchier, 297, 300. 

Pucci, Antonio, canzone by (Bibl., 
XI), 93 ff., 105, 267, 304 f. 

Punchkin, 208. 

Pursued by their mother's head, 
North American tale, 162 ff. 

Pursuing Head, 162 ff., 188 ff. 

Puss in Boots, 202. 

Queen of Scotland, ballad, 281. 

R, lost French romance of the Chal- 
lenge: see French romance. 

Ragnell, Dame, 269 ff. 

Raja Rasalu, 164. 

Rakshasas, 49 f., 158. 

Ration for champion: see Cham- 
pion's portion. 



Rationalization, in Perlesvaus, 54 ff.; 
in tales and romances, 238 ff. 

Rauf Coilyear (Bibl., XIII), 102, 306. 

Raynbrown, 87. 

Re Serpente, 165. 

Red Branch, 10. 

Red Knight of the Red Laundes, 141. 

Reicne Fothaid, 179. 

Release of a Captive Maiden: see 
Enchanted Princess. 

Resuscitation, 153 f., 229; by mir- 
acle, 165 ff. 

Resuscitation, means of preventing, 
49, 62 ff., 148 ff., 156 ff., 159 ff., 
247. 

Returning head, means of baffling, 
49, 62 ff., 148 ff., 156 ff., 159 ff., 
247. 

Returning or surviving head, in- 
stances of, in folk-lore, romance, 
and legend, 147 ff.; in Celtic folk- 
tales and literature, 147 ff., 169 ff., 
177 ff,; in the Faeroes, 156; in 
Hungary, 156; in Russia, 156; in 
Greece (the hydra), 156 f.; in 
Ariosto, 157; in Holland and Ger- 
many, 157 f.; in India, 158, 174 f.; 
in Italy, 158; in Papua, 159; in 
North America, 159 ff., 161 ff., 
173; in the Philippines, 160; in 
the Moluccas, 161; in Japan, 173; 
in Australia, 174 f.; by miracle, 
176 f., 187 ff. 

Reversal of spell, 215 f. 

Revolving castles: see Turning. 

Richard Coer de Lion, 22, 221. 

Riche Sodoier, Li, 117. 

Rider of Grianaig, 200. 

Ridere of Riddles, 280. 

Riding into hall, 5. 

Riddles, 277, 280. 

Ritter von Staufenberg, 236. 

Rival Sisters, 252 ff. 



INDEX 



321 



Robin Goodfellow, 215. 

Robin Hood, 22, 221. 

Robyn and Gandelejoi, 21, 220. 

Rock, rolling, 189. 

Roger of Hoveden, 185. 

Rolling head or skull, 169 f., 188 f. 

Rolling rock, 189. 

Rosete, 117. 

Rossiglione and Guardastagno, 164. 

Rotelonde: see Hue. 

Roumanian tale, 216. 

Round Table recruited from con- 
quered or disenchanted knights: 
see Arthur. 

Runic charms, 258. 

Russian tales, 98, 156, 208. 

St. Patrick's Purgatory, 244. 

Saints: see under their names. 

Saints carrying their heads, 176 f. 

Satalia, Gulf of, legend, 185 f. 

Sativola, St., 176. 

Sausewind, 204. 

Savinian, St., 176. 

Saxo Grammaticus, 21, 175, 218. 

Scottish tales: see Irish. 

Sea Maiden, tale, 148. 

Seint Greal, 4, 54. 

Sencha mac Ailill, 12. 

Senchdn, 275 S. 

Separable soul, 152, 208, 215. 

Serglige Conchulaind, 231. 

Serpent Lover, North American tale, 

162 £f. 
Serpent produced by magic, 226; 

attached to Caradoc, 226 ff. 
Serpents, head and body join, 20, 192. 
Serpents in woman, 278 f. 
Sgoidamur, 252 f. 
Shroud stolen, 172. 
Shuden6ji, 173. 
Siddhi-Kiir, 196. 
SidweU, St., 176. 



Siege of Howth, 169, 193. 

Silvester II, 184. 

Sinadoun, 247. 

Singing head, 179, 184. 

Single combat: see Duelling. 

Sir Orfeo, 213. 

Sir Thomas More, play, 103. 

Skilful companions, 274, 278. 

Skin, magic, 206, 260. 

Skinning to disenchant, 214 flf. 

Skull, speaking, 182 f., 186 f.; de- 
monic, 188. 

Skull stolen, 172. 

Sleep, magic, 237. 

Sleeping potion, 262. 

Smith and his Dame, 168. 

Snake-men, 20, 162 ff., 191 f. 

Snowdon, 247. 

Somersault, 216. 

Son of Bad Counsel, 265. 

Son of the Green Spring, 148. 

Southey's King Arthur, 31. 

Speaking heads, 177 £f. 

Speculum Laicorum, 182. 

Speculum Regale, 179, 213. 

Spell and counter-spell, 239 f . 

Spells, conditions of release from, 
239 f. See also Disenchantment. 

Spirit of vegetation, 195 ff. 

StarkaSr, 175. 

Sualtaim, 178. 

Substitution of magic objects for 
wife, 225. 

Surviving head: see Returning. 

Svarfdcela Saga, 175. 

Swan maidens, 232, 268. 

Swedish folk-lore, 201, 205, 215. 

Sword: see Magic. 

Sword bridge: see Bridge. 

Sword in bed, 92. 

Sword of Light, 149. 

Symmachus, 183. 

Symplegades, 245. 



322 



INDEX 



Tail rhyme, 86, 302. 

Tain Bo Cuailgne, 178. 

Talisman, protective: see Green 
Lace. 

Talismanic heads, 1 79 f . 

Tasks, imposed by king of Other 
World, 232 £f.; performed by com- 
rade or attendant: see Helpful 
Companion, See also Tests. 

Templars, accused of worshipping 
head, 185. 

Tennis-ball, game with, 120, 154, 
223, 275. 

Teraphim, 181. 

Terilo, William, 185. 

Tests of hero, 76 ff., 79 ff., 108, 232 ff. 

Thankful dead: see Grateful. 

Theodoric and Symmachus, 183. 

Thirteenth Son of the King of Erin, 
156. 

Three Inns, exempla of, 96 ff., 271 ff., 

305- 
Three truths, 257 f. 
Thumb, healing by, 222. 
Tochmarc Emire, 213. 
Tochmarc Etaine, 197, 213. 
Togail Bruidne Da Derga, 177. 
Tolus, head of, 180. 
Totem, 234. 
Tree as staff, 195; cut down at a 

stroke, 199; Virbius, tree god, 

199. 
Tricks of the f6e, 262, 264. 
Tristan, prose, 132. 
Tritill and Kolur, 259 f . 
Trivet, Nicholas, 128, 
Tromdam Guaire, 275 ff. 
Truth of men, pledge of fair play, 

II f. 
Tumblers, 226. 
Turk and Gawam, The (Bibl., IV), 

118 ff., 200 ff., 274 ff. 
Tiirlln: see Heinrich. 



Turning castle, 42, 244 f. 
Turning one's coat, 215. 
Tutelary heads, 180. 
Tyndale, 215. 

Uath version of the Challenge, with 
translation, 17 ff., 292; comparison 
with The Champion's Bargain, 19; 
development of the episode, 20 ff.; 
comparison with Gawain and the 
Green Knight, 24 f.; with La 
Mule sanz Frain, 47 f.; Uath ver- 
sion without influence on French 
literature, 74. 

Udalric, St., 187 f. 

Ugliness from spells, 87ff., 117, ii9ff., 
200, 203 f., 257 f., 274 ff. See Dis- 
enchantment, Helpful companion, 
Loathly lady. 

Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, 219 f. 

Umamba, 216 f. 

Underbare Hasten, Den, 201. 

Underwaves, Eling, 171, 279. 

Valentine and Orson, 185. 
Vampires, 160. 
Vegetation, demon of, 195 ff. 
Vengeance Raguidel, 104. 
Venomous apple, cast of, 153 f., 

222 f., 275. 
Vetala, 196. 
Vidyadhara, 211. 
Virbius, 199. 
Visit to the Other World: see Fairy 

Mistress. 
Voluspd, 181. 

Waddie, 22. 

Walewein, 103, 240, 274. 
Wallace and Fawdoun, 175. 
Warner, traditional figure, 90, 97, 

loi, 104, iiof. 
Waste city, 48, 52 ff., 238, 245 f. 



INDEX 



3*3 



See 



See 



Water-monsters, 20 f., 156!., 159, 

163. 
Wauchier's Perceval, 241. 
Waxing the hand, 221. 
Wedding of Gawain, 269 S. 

Loathly Lady. 
Welsh tales, 179!., 196, 202. 

Mabinogion. 
Werewolf, 161, 201, 206, 212. 
Whetting a weapon, 6, 53, 57 f., 288. 
Whirling castles: see Turning. 
White Lady, 210. 
Widow and her Daughters, 207. 
Wier, Johann, 239. 
Wife of Bath's Tale, 171, 203, 268 ff., 

279. 
Wild man in mummings, 198 f. 
William of Malmesbury, 185, 187, 

250. 



Winifred, St., 167. 

Witchcraft, 125 f., 134. 

Witch's head as oracle, 184. 

Wives from Other World, 232. 

Wives lent, 267. 

Wolfdietrich, 21, 105, 218 f., 262. 

Womanslayer, ballad, 157. 

Wonders of Ireland, 176, 179, 213. 

Wood deities, color and shape, 195. 

Word, plighted, 11. 

Wrennok and Gandeleyn, 21. 

Yaksha, 211. 
Ynglinga Saga, 181. 
Yonec, lay of, 231. 
Yorimitsu, 173. 

Zoolvisia, 209. 
Zulu tale, 206, 216 f. 



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